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Major University Accuses Its Own Mascot of White Supremacy, but Now Everything’s ‘Okay’ – Opinion

By Pluralist / January 30, 2022

One major Nebraska school has modernized its mascot.

A school’s symbol is important — it represents everyone attending.

How might such an emblem be characterized? Courage, ferocity, heroism? White supremacy is preferred.

Hence, the University of Nebraska has modified “Herbie Husker.”

Herb’s been around for quite a while.

Omaha.com notes that the cartoonist Dick West, a long-time newspaper cartoonist, created the character in 1974. Mr. Husker made his debut at that year’s Cotton Bowl against the University of Texas at Austin. Don Bryant was the Sports Information Director and saw the sketch in the box. He then refined the design. Later that fall, a new Herbie premiered in the team’s media guide. In the mid-90’s, the Cornhusker icon traded his overalls for a polo shirt and jeans; but the preppy makeover didn’t last.

All was well okay —It seemed so.

Herbie, however, was actually sending this exact message via his thumb touching his forefinger. These are delicate times.

Hence, it was decided the guy’s pose was profoundly problematic.

The Associated Press

University of Nebraska changed Herbie Husker, its cartoon mascot, to remove confusion over the meaning of Herbie’s hand gesture that many people use to connect to white supremacy.

In a newer, nicer configuration, Herbie’s raising his finger — as if to say, “No, no, no — I’m not a raging white racist.”

But who says evil is “okay”?

As observed by the Independent, the whole thing’s hogwash:

This hoax started in 2017. … [U]sers of 4chan, an anonymous and unrestricted online message board, began what they called “Operation O-KKK,” to see if they could trick the wider world — and especially, liberals and the mainstream media — into believing that the innocuous gesture was actually a clandestine symbol of white power.

“We must flood Twitter and other social media websites with spam, claiming that the OK hand signal is a symbol of white supremacy,” one of the users posted, going on to suggest that everyone involved create fake social media accounts “with basic white girl names” to propagate the notion as widely as possible.

The University of Nebraska remains convinced that change is necessary.

According to Lonna Henrich, Licensing and Branding Director at Flatwater Free Press:

“That hand gesture could, in some circles, represent something that does not represent what Nebraska athletics is about. We just didn’t even want to be associated with portraying anything that somebody might think, you know, that it means white power.”

“We made that change as quick as we could,” she said.

It’s not the first woke reworking of a mascot over the last little while.

Take into account the possibility of an improvement in August last year:

The nation is being restructured by institutions.

Omaha Beach was occupied by young men in 1944. Young adults today are often traumatized and influenced by doodled Phalanges.

Thankfully, at the University of Nebraska, the peril’s been put to rest.

Hopefully, those who’ve previously lamented America’s racism are relieved.

I wonder if former President Obama thinks it’s alright…

Yes, he has to approve.

And he’s in good company:

Thankfully, everything’s okay.ame

-ALEX

 

You can find more of my content here:

She’s No ‘Showgirl’: Microsoft Pummels the Problematic by Correcting Your Unwoke Words

Report: Students are forced to record their own reactions when confronted by racists, homophobes, or ableists.

Princeton invites students to National Condom Day and hosts contraceptive arts and crafts

Check out all of my RedState work Here.

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