THE ISSUE: Almost two years ago, Rameses Jr. joined the UNC athletics family as its newest mascot. RJ was designed to be friendlier and more approachable than Rameses without replacing him. The board is split on whether or not to embrace the change. You can read the counter-argument here.
On a serene October (Late) Night (With Roy) in 2015, Rameses Jr., or RJ, silently pantomimed a wail as it entered the world. Like most newborns, it was not very lovable.
Seriously, have you seen a baby recently? They look like little aliens.
My point is, even awesome new things can strike us as weird at first. To distance ourselves from the stone ages, though, we need to embrace new things for the good in them.
So, here are some good things about RJ:
- RJ is shorter than its co-mascot/father Rameses. Given average heights, that means more people have a shot at being the person underneath the large costume horns.
- RJ’s eyebrows are more arched, and thus less terrifying than Rameses’. If I was a kid, I’d still be scared of RJ. But apparently the little aliens these days grow up braver than I was.
- RJ is the promise of tomorrow. Like all ram-themed costume mascot children, RJ ensures that the race of ram-themed costume mascots will continue. At the cost of years of hard work in changing RJ’s oversized diapers, laboring fruitlessly to put food into RJ’s impermeable mouth and worrying about RJ’s teenage friendship with that good-for-nothing Sir Purr, Rameses raised a mascot. A new mascot, that, while unfamiliar, has a chance to avoid the gendered-ness of its father and build a brighter dawn.
Long live Rameses. All hail RJ!
