Southern Utah

Cartoon For Utah – DSU’s Latest Rebrand-Aid

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A cartoon for The Independent.

I wish I was in the land of cotton. Old times there are not forgotten. Look away. Look away. Look away, Dixieland.

Do you know who picked cotton? Slaves. Do you know what about the old times that are not forgotten? Slavery. So why anyone wants to identify with one of the darkest histories of the United States is puzzling. It’s especially puzzling when the institution that wants to identify with Dixie is not in Dixie.

Dixie State University is in Utah. Not the Southern United States.  There were 11 states in the Confederacy and none of them were Utah. Southern Utah likes to tag itself as the “Dixie of Utah.” Southern Utah, you are not in Dixie. Dixie is in Dixie. You’re an institution of higher learning. You have professors, calculators, books, rulers and other learny stuff. You probably teach history. Get a map. Educate yourself on geography.

I have a friend who went to DSU. It’s weird how many Utah connections I have. She doesn’t want the name to change. I understand not wanting to change the name of something from your past. The university in my hometown of Monroe, Louisiana changed it’s mascot and name. I didn’t mind it changing it’s mascot from the Indians to the Warhawks (most team names are generic. There are three Tigers and two bulldogs in the SEC). I didn’t like it changing its name from Northeast Louisiana University to the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Why didn’t I like it? I find it more generic. There’s a University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  NLU (which I’m still used to saying to refer to the university) could have just changed it to the University of Monroe, or Monroe University or had just left it he Hell alone. But at least there wasn’t anything to be taken as racist from it and it’s actually in Dixie. Utah, you have a bigger problem.

In 1987 “the Rebels,” a large bronze statue of soldiers with a Confederate flag was placed on campus. In 1993, Dixie State got rid of the Confederate flag as an official school symbol. Today their mascot is “Big Dee”, who was formerly referred to as “Rodney Rebel.” Now they’re trying to find a new mascot with some of the choices surveyed being Raptors, Mustangs, Wranglers and The Blazers (which is also the team name of my college, Belhaven University, which is also generic. Blazers? We’re a type of jacket?).

DSU needs to take the focus off their mascot hunt and focus on getting rid of “Dixie.” You’re not in Dixie. It doesn’t make any sense. You’re Utah. You have your own identity. You don’t need to glom onto one of another region.

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McSpooky

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I drew this for The Independent in St. George, Utah.

I like McDonald’s fair enough. I can’t eat their stuff as often as I could when I was younger. I have walked into the place over the past couple years and changed my mind from the grease smell. Other times I’ve chowed down on a Big Mac. I still love their fries…if I can get them fresh. I’m pretty psyched I can get a McGriddle now after 11:00 AM. I don’t know if I’ll ever do but I like knowing I can.

I don’t kid myself. McDonald’s is not healthy food. Those salads are just for show. It’s definitely not something you want to get your children hooked on. I know as a parent I fed my son way too much of it, but to be honest, he just wanted the toy and would ignore his Happy Meal.

Having a contest to see which kid can gorge himself the most and the fastest isn’t just stupid, it’s destructive. It’s a contest to see which child they can encourage to slowly kill himself.

To be honest, after drawing this I kinda want a Big Mac. Just one. It’s not a contest.

Did you like this cartoon? Want to help a cartoonist make a living? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. The starving cartoonist appreciates it.

Elementary Mohawks

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Here’s this week’s cartoon for The Independent.

When I was a kid, I considered school dress codes as teachers’ punishment for not being as cool as their students. When I was in high school, the biggest concern for teachers was girls dressing like Madonna from the “Lucky Star” video. I was concerned too, but only that those girls wouldn’t ever talk to me.

I understand dress code. I’m not entirely against them. Someone has to tell kids to pull their pants up.

Arrowhead Elementary School in Washington County, Utah, dismissed a seven-year-old second grader last week for sporting a Mohawk. The school administration considered the Mohawk distracting. Check out the link. Does that look distracting? Maybe I’m jaded. I see kids with weird haircuts all the time. The only time I’m concerned is when a child has a mullet, and I’m worried about what type of parents would do that to their child. The Mohawk is kinda cool.

Maybe it is something distracting in the second grade, but I don’t really buy it.

this child is of Seneca descent. That’s a Native American tribe. The school requested a letter from the New York-based Seneca Nation of Indians to confirm the haircut is of cultural significance. Of course they responded and in a much more diplomatic way than I’m posting here, stated, “Leave the kid alone, and stop discriminating against him.”

You would think those in the education business would be educated on such matters. You would especially think those in the education business at a school named Arrowhead Elementary would be somewhat familiar with what’s of cultural significance to Native Americans.

That’s some irony difficult to top in a cartoon.

At the end of the day, it’s just a haircut. The school might want to concern themselves more with what’s in his head than on top.

Lazy Lucy Vs. Polygamist Pete

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Here’s this week’s cartoon for The Independent in St. George, Utah.

Reading Horizons is a publisher of educational material in Salt Lake City, Utah. Over 10,000 schools use their programs. They recently published some books with characters such as Lazy Lucy. Lazy Lucy is depicted somewhere in Africa, and she struggles to keep her hut clean. There’s Nieko The Hunting Girl who’s an American Indian hunting Woolly Mammoths. They also let us know that Kenyans can run very fast.

Reading Horizons is catching some heat so don’t hold your breath for the planned children’s story Willy And His Watermelons.
The Minneapolis school board is upset. They called the books “culturally insensitive and unacceptable.” They really don’t like stereotypes in Minnesota. You betcha they don’t.
They also want a refund of the $1.2 million they paid to Reading Horizons, which would buy a lot of Jello (you have to be aware they eat a lot of Jello in Utah to get that joke. It’s probably not as well known of a stereotype as Mormons and polygamy).
$1.2 million? I can come up with some educational material for just half that price. We can start with something like why you shouldn’t purchase educational materials from someone with the cultural and sensitivity awareness of a Klansman….or Donald Trump.