Skittles- let's go down the rabbit hole. I have no opinion here. But please tell me what is a "Colonial." My quick google search leads me to dictionary.com. The definition is "an inhabitant of a colony." So, a Colonial, in this sense, would be somebody who inhabited a British colony. I don't really think this is problematic. But also, I don't think it's particularly great either. 

BUt, to me, I don't really care what the nickname is. 

Hatchet Man, but our nickname has never been The Colonists.  Or The Colonizers.  So if Colonials and Colonists are not the same thing, then what am I missing here?  Am open to a history lesson.

Nothing to do with Hippos!  That whole thing was Trachtenburg drunk at an art auction and then he donated the damn thing to the university (tax deduction) and a story had to be made up to support it. 

Ps: you don’t ever want to put a black light on that thing.  Just a warning.

This whole issue reeks. There is nothing wrong with the name Colonials. The 13 original colonies were British, but they were very different from each other. Read the book "1775" and become educated. The Brits never wanted the different colonies to expand beyond the Appalachians. So, the Colonies revolted. Having a History degree from GW I AM angry about how ignorant people are on this issue. 

But what I really don't like is non alumni voting on this matter. Students may never graduate and faculty who graduated from other Universities should not be involved. I went to Rutgers but I did not graduate from the school. Why should I have the right to vote on whether Scarlet Knights should be canned because of the Crusades? Were all knights involved in the Crusades? 

Good God, please please please not the hippos.

NYColonial - thanks for the best laugh I have had I a while.  When life has challenges I can always rely upon the wit of someone on the board to give me a well needed reprieve!!!

Skittles wrote:

The Colonials in the schools case mostly refers to both the time period when the revolution began as well as the colonies of our blossoming country. That is exclusively what it refers to. It was the colonial period. That's not the same thing as a focus on colonizing or the act of creating the original colonies. If "colonials" offends you I agree with the above sentiment of getting rid of the crusaders and cowboys and musketeers and every other Mascot related to troublesome history and activities. Hell, is the GW part next? Without him there's no THIS as we know it. But he had slaves. So where do you draw this line the "woke" culture has demanded of you?

It's sort of silly to continue to debate whether or not it was prudent to move away from the Colonials moniker given that the decision has already been made. Even if the rationale was ahistorical, there is a 0% chance that the Board will wake up tomorrow and decide to stick with the name moving forward.  Better to use our energy making sure we don't end up the Hippos or Commanders.

FWIW, SUNY Binghamton used to be the Colonials and they weren't even named after the colonial period but instead a building on campus: Colonial Hall.  When they moved up to D1, they decided to rebrand as the Bearcats.  GW's Board should have just said they wanted to come up with a rebrand without any sort of justification.  I think it would've been received better than being accused of bowing down to the "woke."

One last thing is that a silver lining for a new name will be that announcers will stop incorrectly calling us the Colonels 50% of the time.

Last edited by GW0509 (10/14/2022 11:19 am)

Unlike Colonists or colonizers, Colonials is not really a thing. Frankly, it is kind of a made-up name, like "Billikens". But as bad as Billikens is, it is way better than Hippos. my two cents.

Tennessee Colonial wrote:

This whole issue reeks. There is nothing wrong with the name Colonials. The 13 original colonies were British, but they were very different from each other. Read the book "1775" and become educated. The Brits never wanted the different colonies to expand beyond the Appalachians. So, the Colonies revolted. Having a History degree from GW I AM angry about how ignorant people are on this issue. 

But what I really don't like is non alumni voting on this matter. Students may never graduate and faculty who graduated from other Universities should not be involved. I went to Rutgers but I did not graduate from the school. Why should I have the right to vote on whether Scarlet Knights should be canned because of the Crusades? Were all knights involved in the Crusades? 

Nailed it!!!!
 

A female hippo is called a cow.Do we have a problem here?