It has been said that those who fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Perhaps someone should pass Kansas State University's football team a history book.

The Wildcat football team at Kansas State has named its swarming defense the "Lynch Mob." While I'm proud that the Wildcat football program has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of its infamous "Futility U" days, I am saddened that a team that represents an institution of higher learning would select such an inappropriate name. And perhaps even more troubling is that their ignorance of the bloody, violent, and racist history of the phrase is yet another casualty of the sanitized historical slant many textbooks I present.

I know football is a violent sport. And sure, a strong defense is what championship teams are built on. The Purple People Eaters, Steel Curtain, and Doomsday defenses are prime example of that. Defense has been a staple in the Wildcats's rise to national prominence. But I would hope no team would want to be allied with a name that is associated with so much racism, pain, and injustice. I could never imagine a Jewish team naming itself the Storm Troopers, Nazis, or Burning Ovens, nor could I imagine a team with Native Americans allowing themselves to be called the Cavalry. Wake up, my brothers.

Some team members have pointed to the fact that rapper Ice Cube's posse refers to themselves by that name. I am not enamored with their name, but I know that it is more of a political statement than an argument of ignorance. They know their history.

For the record, the American Heritage Dictionary defines lynching as an execution "by hanging without due process of the law." Perhaps many associate the name with a John Wayne-type Western movie with a posse going after a criminal.

But while the practice has been used extensively on Whites who got out of line, it is also largely associated with its Black victims. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation it was a tool to discourage slave revolts. After the manifesto, it became a mechanism to mentally shackle the former slaves, since it could no longer be done by law.