While the “Executive Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity Issues” et al. at the NCAA wishes to stop colleges who apparently demean Indians by thinking they present a noble and formidable symbol the schools wish their athletics squads to emulate, there are some Indians who don’t tug the heartstrings of those oh-so-sensitive leftists who wish to protect them ? beyond the Indian tribes who give universities their blessing to keep the tribe’s imagery as its mascot, that is.
I’m speaking of Indian academics who aren’t bat[guano]-leftists like non-Indian “Indian” Ward Churchill. Such as William Bradford of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Law:
Bradford is convinced that his patriotic political stance on the War on Terror and his refusal to sign a petition in behalf of Ward Churchill which was sponsored by his chief antagonist on the law faculty (and its leading leftwing activist), Professor Florence Roisman, is the proximate cause of this grotesque situation. When Bradford refused to sign her petition for Churchill, Roisman said “What kind of a native American are you?” …
Roisman, who holds an endowed Chair, has led a campaign to vilify Professor Bradford. She has called him a “liar,” and referred to him as “Clarence Tomahawk” …
There’s also David Yeagley, formerly of Oklahoma State University at Oklahoma City:
They knew I was tough and conservative, and wouldn?t sue them or make an issue of their [Indian] jokes. … I started a national campaign to have patriotism taught in public schools. My proposal won the personal support of Governor Keating.
When David Horowitz?s website FrontPageMagazine.com ran a story about my campaign, my phone started ringing off the hook with requests to appear on talk shows.
That was the last straw for OSU-OKC.