Chinks are no. 1
In the 1964 Illinois state basketball championship came down to two teams, the Pekin Chinks (that’s right) and the Cobden Appleknockers. The game made all the papers. Pekin was a town of almost thirty thousand and Cobden had about 900 residents so it was a David vs. Goliath drama. The contest was in all the papers. It was the topic of conversation in high school lunchrooms and at dinner tables all over Illinois. The Appleknockers put up one heck of a fight, but in the end, the Chinks were victorious.
No way I could make this up.
We were all amused by Cobden’s funny mascot name. The —pretty funny, right? But we found nothing amusing, and nothing even the slightest bit embarrassing about the Pekin Chinks. We totally got it.
Pekin chose its name because someone convinced the citizens they were on exactly the opposite side of the globe from Peking (now Bejing) China. They were antipodes—that’s one of those SAT words that impresses everybody. So it was perfectly understandable that Pekin would be the Fighting Chinks. Nothing offensive about that. I’m ashamed to say the idea never even crossed my mind.
The Pekin High School student body elected a Chink and a Chinkette ( You know I couldn’t make that up) who appeared at school functions and sporting events. The Chink mascot was dressed as a coolie and struck a gong every time his team scored a goal or dunked a ball.
The city of Pekin also had a roller skating rink named the Chink Rink. I suppose that is gone now that roller skating is out of fashion. The Fighting Chinks are gone as well. In 1981 the mascot was changed to the Dragon. Still Asian, but way more politically correct. The change didn’t come without a fight. There was lots of talk about political correctness run amuck, and all the Chinese in Illinois who were actually proud to be the stereotypical mascot of the 1964 state basketball champs.
The Nazi’s ruined the swastika for everybody.
Just to be fair, Pekin High’s sports team wasn’t the only one with an especially offensive mascot. There are the Akron, Ohio East High Orientals (still their name as of 2014), with their mascot, Chang the dragon. Initially they were the fighting Arabs but changed to the Orientals in the 1940’s.
There were at least three Canadian hockey teams known as “The Swastikas”. That really doesn’t count because the Nazi’s hadn’t chosen that symbol when those teams were still playing. Still, it’s about as retroactively offensive as you can get.
No plans to change.
If you attend a Coachella Valley High School football game in Thermal California, your half-time entertainment will include belly dancers. The CVH team mascot is a black bearded Arab wearing a headscarf. There are no immediate plans to change because the local Middle Eastern population is apparently proud to the inspiration of the Fighting Arabs.
I’ve been told my fiction–especially OWL DREAMS–is sometimes politically incorrect. I suppose that might be so. I learned everything I know about political correctness in high school.