Why Does New Orleans Saints Mascot Sir Saint Have To Be White?—They Should Have A Black One As Well

(12/16/09–Greetings Saintsreport.com readers. You sure do seem defensive over this matter. Maybe it is the long shameful—and still unaddressed—history of race relations in New Orleans and Louisiana that makes you so defensive. I wonder how many of you folks ever have written with such passion in favor of racial and economic justice as you write on behalf of a football mascot? Here is the current day New Orleans you folks commenting below are defending.)

Above is the strange New Orleans Saints mascot Sir Saint.

Why does he have to be white?

In 2008, 65% of NFL players were black.

29% of players were white in 2008.

Plenty of folks in New Orleans and Louisiana are black.

When this mascot was designed, a decision had to be made if he would be black or white.

Why white instead of black?

With almost two-thirds of NFL players black, maybe he should have been black.

Maybe the Saints could have two mascots.

They could have a white one and a black one who go around the field as loyal teammates.

According to the book How Barack Obama Won by Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser, 84% of white voters in Louisiana voted for John McCain in 2008 while 94% of blacks voted for Barack Obama.

That is quite a racial disparity.

Here is a history of post-Civil War Reconstruction in Louisiana.

It is an ugly and brutal story that led to the terrible Jim Crow-era in Louisiana.

You can say that Sir Saint is just a silly football mascot and who cares what he looks like?

Yet in a place with as nasty a racial history as Louisiana and New Orleans, the decision as to what color the football mascot should be implies something. Especially when the mascot does not look like the majority of players on the field.

(Not that the deformed Sir Saint looks like most white players either.)

The Saints should get themselves an odd-looking black mascot as well and the black and white mascots could play catch on the sidelines and team-up to tackle rival mascots. This would show people that black and white folks can get along—-Even in Louisiana.

What would be best would be if the black mascot and the white mascot could get married in a halftime ceremony. Such a ceremony would help the players get in touch with their true feelings with all that physical male-bonding going on in football.

The gay marriage though might have to wait until I own the Saints.