Jalen Rose is the at the center of another mind-boggling culture war battle, one that has culminated in a bill to "protect" Mount Rushmore.
Here's why using Mount Rushmore to define greatness should be retired immediately. pic.twitter.com/mtYYTtKFSa
— Jalen Rose (@JalenRose) August 3, 2022
It all started Aug. 3 when the sports commentator and former member of Michigan's Fab Five took to Twitter (in, we might add, a very cool Detroit Pistons shirt) to ask people stop using the colloquialism "Mount Rushmore" to describe four greats in a particular category.
His argument: The term is offensive because the monument was built on land stolen from Native Americans.
"Can we retire using Mount Rushmore? That should be offensive to all of us, especially Native Americans, indigenous people," he said, likening it to sports franchises that previously called themselves the Indians and Redskins.
On Friday came the clap back from Dusty Johnson, the lone Congressman representing South Dakota, where the monument stands. He seemed to miss the point of the comment, and introduced a bill to protect the Memorial itself. The Mount Rushmore Protection Act prohibits the use of federal funds "to alter, change, destroy or remove the likeness, the name of or any of the faces" on it.
