Changing the Redskins team name
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Anonymous
| What do you think about the team's and the NFL's refusal to change the Redskins team name? I can't say I cared much about this issue before, but after listening to a story about it on NPR this morning I'm shocked that the team hasn't changed the name. I'm also surprised that more people aren't outraged by this. The term Redskin is apparently identified as a racial slur by most dictionaries. What do you think? |
Anonymous
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1) I don't think anybody has refused to change the name, I think they don't think It makes sense right now.
2) A study was done and the majority of people did not find the name offensive and the majority of native Americans did not find it offensive. I think the owner is open to changing the name if the majority really cared. I think he will change it because he is a marketing person and he can sell more jerseys. Your NPR show sounds like a commentary not a new report. |
Anonymous
| I work in American Indian communities. I see this issue as just another slap in the face to them. Why is it that the capital of this country has to have a racial slur as it's mascot? Is it to pay homage to the decades of prejudice and cruelty towards Indians? |
Anonymous
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I think it should be changed, of course it's offensive. What else would "Redskin" mean other than a name of offense toward Native Americans? I don't buy the argument that "it's tradition" or "it's not offensive now."
I also think Notre Dame's "Fighting Irishman" should be changed. It perpetuates the stereotype of the drunk, tempermental, fighting Irishman. The Irish were much maligned in this country in the late 1800s, so they too should have the offense mascot removed. |
Anonymous
| *offensive |
Anonymous
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Almost lifelong DC area resident, and I think the name should be changed. It should have been changed a long time ago, and I'm also shocked that the name is still used.
Honestly, it's one of the reasons I refuse to root for the home team. As someone from the area, I don't want to be associated with a slur for our home sports team. 'Redskin' is so much more offensive than 'Bullets,' and we changed that name (although to be fair, 'Wizards' was a pretty stupid rename choice). I'm not sure what the name should be changed to, but I think it's appalling that the name hasn't been changed yet. |
Anonymous
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if that's your biggest problem in life then you must have a great life
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Anonymous
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I'm very passionate about racial issues. Example of where I fall on the spectrum: I think Trayvon Martin was profiled and murdered. I think many of us like to pretend we are a post racial society and we are not yet, by a long shot.
I see the point people make about Columbus Day being a day that, if you think about it, memorializes mass genocide. I don't feel that Columbus Day should be changed but I understand why some people feel that way. I think we'd do well to remember, while we celebrate the chain of events that led to those of us today leading a good life here, that our good life was really stolen from natives and built in large part by slaves. And yet I just can't get worked up about this team name. I don't care about football, at all. And I just don't feel offended by "Redskins". Maybe because I see it as a positive association? That implies it's praising the warrior-like abilities of the Native Americans in centuries past? I realize this makes me a hypocrite. I just can't feel the outrage. I do care about what happened to the Native Americans in this country - My children have Native American blood. But I'm not feeling it. |
Anonymous
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You better believe that they'd change it if it was something like "San Francisco Chinks" or Chicago N____.
They need to change it and they need to have done it yesterday. American Indians are one of the smallest groups in society. What does it mean about us that we can't protect minority groups? |
Anonymous
| God I hate Columbus day. I'm a fed and it makes me irrationally upset that I get yet another stupid holiday off. Give me Christmas Eve or the Friday after Thanksgiving instead please. |
Anonymous
Even though dc was the murder capital for year the name was not changed for dc it was changed in honor of Israel's prime minister. |
Anonymous
| Never understood the criticism until I was watching halftime on SNF or MNF and Bob Costas put it perfectly - if the name had been to describe the color or race of others there wouldn't be indifference but major backlash and I realized how much sense that made. |
Anonymous
I just googled this, and holy crap, you're right - the name was changed because the owner thought Yitzhak Rabin's assassination was the "last straw." Not that assassination is ever ok, but that it took an Israeli politician to die, for the owner to consider changing the local team's name - instead of concern over local violence. |
Anonymous
| OP here. I don't follow football and I don't care about football at all, but I've come to feel that the name really needs to be changed. One of the Native Americans interviewed on the NPR piece said that the term 'Redskin' was the name the colonists were screaming at the Indians as they rounded them up and shot them. |
Anonymous
| Political correctness and the supersensitivity of minorities is killing this country. Channel your outrage and energy to the poverty, alcoholism, drug addicts, ill educated, hopelessnessand helplessness of Amerivan Indians. Ranting about the name of an NFL football team worth hundteds of millions is disingenious at best. |