Originally Posted by CE80
So when the students want their safe spaces or don't want the ghetto called the ghetto anymore, they are snowflakes but when they say that one of the other team's players is not as good as the brother on our team, they ought to be forced into a relearning camp.
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I see a major distinction here.
Calling your own neighborhood a slang term is self-deprecation. Your the actual people living in it. Its UD students calling UD housing the
UD Ghetto. Its like calling your own car a "shytbox". The aim of the term is not directed at others. You can call your car or your own streets anything you want.
Mocking the brother of a UD student athlete is someone else's turf however. It's no longer self-deprecation. It's throwing a jab from behind the protection of a glass divider. And were that glass divider not there (the seats in UD Arena and the basketball court where neither ticketholders go on the court or basketball players go in the stands), none of these folks would have the balls to even mumble under their breath within 5 feet of Jacob Toppin that "Obi's Better!", let alone chant it. Because they know they'd get the absolute living tar beat out of them. And the guy threatening the ass-beating might ultimately be Obi.
We already have proof. It took Roni getting out of her seat one time with one vocal response to get them to abandon their tough image and waive the white flag. Everybody is a macho man from the cheaps until someone swings back. But that's the coward's way. Players are almost always available around the Arena concourse after the game. Walk up to them tell them in their face what you say from the stands. Aint ever gonna happen.
Its interesting that perhaps the greatest UD student section chant in Arena history -- "Sit Down Digger!" -- lives on. It was unique, repetitive, catchy, not offensive, yet a heck of a lot of fun to participate in. Were it actually insulting, offensive, or even just moderately in poor taste, it wouldn't have worked -- that was the beauty in it. It was something nobody could lay a finger on -- not even Digger Phelps which was all the better. It was designed specifically for one coach, from one school, with one odd nickname. If it had been "Sit Down Ray!" for Ray Meyer, it wouldn't have worked. The chant poked fun at Digger's nickname but in a way that was sleight-of-hand. It said, "you're annoying" without saying it. It said, "ND was not created from Holy Water" without saying it. And no other opposing school came up with it or used it. That's where the genius was and why it was an all-timer.
