It has been said that those who fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Perhaps someone should pass Kansas State University's football team a history book.

The Wildcat football team at Kansas State has named its swarming defense the "Lynch Mob." While I'm proud that the Wildcat football program has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of its infamous "Futility U" days, I am saddened that a team that represents an institution of higher learning would select such an inappropriate name. And perhaps even more troubling is that their ignorance of the bloody, violent, and racist history of the phrase is yet another casualty of the sanitized historical slant many textbooks I present.

I know football is a violent sport. And sure, a strong defense is what championship teams are built on. The Purple People Eaters, Steel Curtain, and Doomsday defenses are prime example of that. Defense has been a staple in the Wildcats's rise to national prominence. But I would hope no team would want to be allied with a name that is associated with so much racism, pain, and injustice. I could never imagine a Jewish team naming itself the Storm Troopers, Nazis, or Burning Ovens, nor could I imagine a team with Native Americans allowing themselves to be called the Cavalry. Wake up, my brothers.

Some team members have pointed to the fact that rapper Ice Cube's posse refers to themselves by that name. I am not enamored with their name, but I know that it is more of a political statement than an argument of ignorance. They know their history.

For the record, the American Heritage Dictionary defines lynching as an execution "by hanging without due process of the law." Perhaps many associate the name with a John Wayne-type Western movie with a posse going after a criminal.

But while the practice has been used extensively on Whites who got out of line, it is also largely associated with its Black victims. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation it was a tool to discourage slave revolts. After the manifesto, it became a mechanism to mentally shackle the former slaves, since it could no longer be done by law.

The late Walter White, former executive director of the NAACP, wrote in his book, Rope and Faggot, that the widely accepted explanation for the name is that it came from a Virginian named Charles Lynch, who became upset with the lack of law in the western part of the state prior to the Revolutionary War. Lynch and friends formed their own judicial system - with Lynch as the chief magistrate - and meted out their own brand of capital punishment. Hence the name of the town of Lynchburg, Virginia.

To me, "Lynch Mob" conjures up visions of a sinister tool wielded by the Night Riders, the Ku Klux Klan, and other bigots -- a violent, brutal effort on the part of Whites to keep Blacks down economically, socially, and any other way conceivable. To me, "Lynch Mob" is Billie Holliday singing about the "Strange Fruit" that dangled from southern trees. To me, it's the stories I've heard about Black men who would "disappear into the bayou," weighed down with cinder blocks and their stomach slashed to prevent gas bubbles. It's Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago youth killed and sexually mutilated after he was accused of whistling at a White woman.

Some may say this is ancient history; that lynchings don't occur; that this is an unfortunate part of our country's racist past. For anyone so naive, I would challenge you to consult the family of Garnett Johnson. The forty-year-old ex-Marine was set aflame and beheaded by two "friends" this past July in Grayson, Va.

To its credit, Kansas State University has distanced itself from the name by not using it officially and saying that it is a name the players chose themselves. However, just hoping the name will die has become a pipe dream. The name has been around for several years and has become a rite-of-passage from one team to another.

Just why is it that Kansas State fumbles when it comes to graduating its African American football players, ranked in the Bottom Fifty Football List of Emerge Magazine? Why is it that the fans will stand for these anemic figures? Would they turn their heads and maintain that same silence if the Wildcat football team were ranked ninth in the conference standings, rather than its graduation rates?

Some fans may be willing to overlook the obvious for the sake of a winning program. My conscience will not allow me to do so. This is an academic institution, not an athletic institution. Rather than trying to think of catchy nicknames for their defense, the Wildcat football players may be better served trying to graduate.

Have the football players been following their brethren at the University of Mississippi? Ole Miss athletes have taken a stand and virtually banished the Confederate flag from being waved at sporting events. Although many grumbled, others listened, especially when officials voiced concerns it was hampering recruitment efforts.

I'll take a team with socially conscious athletes who graduate over those with no social consciousness and don't graduate and just rack up bowl appearances any time. I would certainly think twice about sending my child to play for a team that chooses a nickname dripping with the blood of hatred and bigotry.

Keener A. Tippin II is the research news and features coordinator at Kansas State University and a syndicated columnist.

© Copyright 1997 by DiverseEducation.com
© Copyright 2007 by DiverseEducation.com

Top of Page