Stop complaining over trivial things and have some fun
Every time football season starts back up at NDSU, most of the students and fans are able to enjoy themselves at tailgating and in the stadium, celebrating the game and yelling encouragement to our team. But despite how engaging and incredible the atmosphere of college football is at NDSU, a handful of hand-wringing worry-warts come out of the woodwork every year and complain about the “infamous” Sioux Suck Sh*t chant.
This chant, despite having been around for years and in constant use by NDSU fans and students, is suddenly a massive problem. We get told by administrators, newspaper writers, bloggers, and Facebook posters that this chant is offensive, racist, immature, and disrespectful and that we ought to feel ashamed of ourselves for fueling such a bigoted and outdated tradition.
The problem is that the people who complain the most about this chant don’t seem to get the point of it, or just willfully ignore it. NDSU students and fans aren’t chanting “Sioux suck sh*t” because we hate Native Americans, we’re chanting it because it’s catchy and is the name of a rival school.
People have even created the alternative chant of “Hawks suck c*cks” ever since UND’s mascot change. Are both of these chants crude and insulting? Oh absolutely they are, that’s the point. UND is a rival school in North Dakota, and being a rival school, it’s inevitable that some NDSU fans are going to jeer and taunt them. Really guys, what do you expect us to do? Offer words of encouragement and sensory-inclusive finger snaps to the team we’re playing against? Maybe we should give them some hot towels and participation trophies too so their feelings aren’t hurt after the game.
If your enjoyment of a football game is ruined because of one harmless phrase that you personally don’t like, I honestly don’t know what to tell you besides to loosen up a bit. I mean c’mon people, this is college, it’s not supposed to be some safe space that caters to every individual’s personal beliefs and sensitivities. Just enjoy the game for what it is and refrain from the chant if it makes you uncomfortable. The chant is such a non-issue that I’m wondering why I’m even bothering to write this piece. I guess I’m just getting annoyed with a handful of people clutching their metaphorical pearls and making a mountain out of a minuscule molehill.
As I said, nobody is chanting “Sioux suck sh*t” to be a flagrant racist against the Sioux people. It’s a fun chant that NDSU fans and students can get behind. Yeah, I said it’s fun, and I’ll say it again. It’s a fun and unique taunt NDSU has that nobody cares about except me apparently and a small minority of people who sound like they’re immensely fun at parties.
If you don’t like a decades-old chant that hundreds of people seem to enjoy, that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. Just don’t suck the fun out of the game for the rest of us. Have some fun, live a little bit, and enjoy the football game. If it’s that much of a problem for you, maybe next time there’s a home game you should just watch it from the safety of your living room by yourself so the mean old words don’t hurt your feelings.