'Silverbacks' called racially insensitive

[DesertFox]

Some leaders of Buffalo's black community say they consider the new name for the city's minor-league basketball team, the Silverbacks, offensive and racially insensitive.

They say a silverback - an adult male gorilla - is an inappropriate nickname for a team with a large number of black players because bigots have referred to blacks as "gorillas," "apes" and "monkeys."

http://www.buffalonews.com/graphics/2006/08/05/actualsize/0805backlogo_mrln.jpg

Those terms "have a history of being used to dehumanize African-Americans," said Betty Jean Grant, a Buffalo School Board member and former Common Council member. "That is a very derogatory term."

But members of the Silverbacks organization said they don't consider the new name offensive and won't change it.

More (http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060805/1042519.asp)

[DesertFox]

I see their point and agree with it. HOWEVER -- a new generation of blacks is nowhere near as sensitive to such stuff as the Sixties generation. As I've been saying for years, if you adopt the offensive stuff as your own, it loses its sting.

Not to mention that I, too, like Discovery Channel and am fascinated by silverback gorillas. They are extraordinarily powerful, and that's what this team name and logo get at. It's time we got over accepting ONLY the most degrading meaning of a given term as the ONLY meaning for that term.

Move over, oldies. Your time is past and your hang-ups are boring.

[Wolfcounsel]

King Kong was a Silverback, hey! He took on three Tyrannosauruses while holding on to Ann!

These sensitive candy asses need to sit on a fire-ant hill and enjoy the moment.

[Beowulf]

Betty Jean Grant needs to lighten up and get over it.:rolleyes:

[Maggie_T]

*Y A W N*


Yet another case of the PC Schutzstaffel gone beserk. What else is new?

[Rink]

These uber-sensitive people need to get a life and stop being perpetually 'offended' at every word they see or hear.

[UnkHiram]

How about if they call them the Buffalo Wussies or the Buffalo Wimps

[Jester21]

I've got an idea: why doesn't Betty Jean strive to improve the poverty levels prevalent among black people? Nobody makes derogatory remarks about rich people.

And I'll even show her the first step on the way out of poverty: Stop Complaining About Meaningless Shite.

I'm feeling charitable, so I'll throw in steps 2 and 3: Gangbangers End Up Dead Or In Prison, and Graduating High School: Not Just For Pussies.

[DeclinetoState]

How about if they call them the Buffalo Wussies or the Buffalo WimpsIsn't that the football team there (whenever it gets to the Super Bowl)?

Isn't a silverback an old person with a mullet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullet_(haircut))?

[DoctorDoom]

Next on the P-C agenda: renaming "gorillas," "apes" and "monkeys" to "alternative humans".

Somebody (http://www.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens/files/grant.htm) needs a life. :rolleyes: