People have officially lost their minds…
The state of Louisiana continues to makes the news for all the wrong reasons. After a month of tearing down historical civil war statues, in an attempt to erase history, citizens are now calling for Louisiana State University’s (LSU) mascot – the tigers – to be changed.
While the petition on Change.org has garnered little support thus far, the fact that it has been created in the first place is cause for concern, and demonstrates the continued downward spiral of cultural values in America.
To be clear, no one is supporting any racist actions of those who earned monuments for their roles in history, nor are we supporting the actions of the ‘Louisiana Tigers’ confederate regiment during the civil war. Rather we are advocating for common sense and learning from our history, not erasing it and digging up old stories so we have something to complain about.
See the original petition below:
Louisiana State University named their mascot the Tigers, and they named it during the height of Jim Crow South. This was a time when black men feared for their lives, and were treated as sub human. This symbol is the most prevalent confederate symbol in the United States.
These powerful white males choose the Tiger as a symbol to honor a confederate regiment called Louisiana’s Tigers. They were known for their propensity for violence on and off the battle field. They were just as violent to the black slaves they owned, and later even more violent once those slaves were set free.
It is incredibly insulting for any African American to have to attend to a school that honors confederate militantism. It is already hard enough to be black at LSU, and these symbols must be changed. We must speak truth to power, and continue to march toward justice. That day is coming, the day when every symbol of white oppression is torn down.
It’s also cruel to cage a wild animal for the amusement of privileged white people. They’ve never been in a cage!
In their own words:
“The following year, 1895, we scheduled a game with what was supposed to be the Tulane team, but as there were not enough football men at Tulane they played anybody they could get hold of. We again employed Simmons to coach our team. We won this game.
It was the custom at that time, for some occult reason, to call football teams by the names of vicious animals; the Yale Bulldogs and the Princeton Tigers, for example. This is still the vogue. It struck me that purple and gold looked Tigerish enough and I suggested that we choose “Louisiana Tigers,” all in conference with the boys. The Louisiana Tigers had represented the state in Civil War and had been known for their hard fighting. This name was applied collectively to the New Orleans Zouaves, the Donaldsonville Cannoniers, and to a number of other Louisiana companies sent to Virginia, who seemed to have the faculty of getting into the hardest part of the fighting and staying there, most of them permanently. One company I knew of went in 200 strong; only 28 returned and many of these were wounded.
So “Louisiana Tigers” went into the New Orleans papers and became our permanent possession.
Our team didn’t compare with present-day teams, in skill, ability, or power. But we had a pretty good time and if there was any professionalism involved I never heard of it.
A few years later when Col. David F. Boyd, who had been president of the University from 1865 to 1880 and again from 1884 to 1886, returned to the University, he was rather surprised to find purple and gold as the colors. He told me they were not the colors, that white and blue had been chosen by him many years ago. But purple and gold had by that time established itself and nothing was ever done about it. Colonel “Dave” also liked the name, “Tigers.” I think he was one of them himself during the Civil War.” Doctor Coates
View the original petition and other absurdities at Change.org.
