Dutch soccer "riddle"

The NYT reports on a Dutch soccer team that inexplicably has been come to be known as "Jewish," that receives anti-Semitic taunts from rival team fans, and that embraces some bizarre soccer-hooligan interpretation of Jewish and Israeli culture. The Times finds this bizarre; can't say I do. That a Dutch team is called Jewish seems no weirder to me than that a Cleveland, Ohio, team should be called "the Indians." Neither is especially PC, both rely on the fact that the groups the teams are chanelling have been knocked down so many times that they remain, in the public consciousness of the respective countries, largely as relics of the past, as icons and not as individuals.

That said, I still have this defense of political correctness to write. It might end up being a Maroon column rather than a blog post, but either way, any day now...