North Dakota Students' "Siouxper Drunk" Shirts Are Super Racist
The NCAA declared the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux mascot "hostile and abusive" in 2005, and the state voted to remove it in 2012, which leaves the school without a nickname until 2015. Not to worry, though. A group of students has found a solution: Use the same mascot, but add a beer bong to the logo. There's no way this could possibly backfire.
"Siouxper Drunk" T-shirts featuring the beer-bonging Fighting Sioux character debuted over the weekend at Springfest, a popular party not sponsored by UND, leading to several complaints to Indian Student Services Monday morning. One student called the shirts "degrading and demeaning."
American Indian Student Services Director Leigh Jeanotte told the Grand Forks Herald he doesn't expect the school to take the complaints seriously.
"Until there is a statement, until there is action, true action, to say that this is wrong, hurtful and it shouldn't be continued, it's going to just keep going on and on and on," he said.
The timing of the shirts only added to the controversy. During Time Out Week, a Native American educational event in April, a sorority hung a banner referencing the Fighting Sioux nickname, which also drew several student complaints.
The shirts also got the attention of the blog Last Real Indians, which broke down the drunken Indian stereotypes and stats on Native deaths from alcohol that make "Siouxper Drunk" offensive.
The students behind the shirts apparently knew they would bring negative attention, but either didn't care or welcomed it. Last Real Indians posted a screengrab of a deleted tweet from April where a student bragged the shirts would "make the news."
