Anonymous wrote:So the ravens have had a prominent player who was accused of murder and found guilty of obstructing justice and another player who was caught beating up his wife on an elevator. Should teachers not broadcast Ravens fandom - either verbally or through the display of Ravens gear and memorabilia?

As a die hard REDSKINS fan who has REDSKINS gear displayed throughout his office, I would say drop it. We root for the team, its players and the city it represents. THAT'S IT - NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS.
To us the term REDSKINS means, honor, respect, heritage, legacy, pride and faith. We cried and celebrated with our fathers, grandfathers, girlfriends, mothers, kids while watching REDSKINS games. The team has given us joy and heartache.

The fact that the context of the word is lost when decrying the word as offensive is indicative of the lack of common sense that surrounds the debate. For example, the word "boy" clearly is not offensive, but if you refer to a person as a "boy" - either to demean him or to belittle him - it's use makes it offensive. Similarly, the argument that you would never call a native american child a "REDSKINS" as a basis for declaring the word offensive misses out on the fundamental fact that the use of the term is not intended to offend. It's not intended to refer to a person or race or ethnicity. It simply is used in the context of referring to a team.

There - to this day - are still majority Native American schools that use "REDSKINS" as a mascot. How then can one declare that it is an offensive term?

Anonymous wrote:
As a die hard REDSKINS fan who has REDSKINS gear displayed throughout his office, I would say drop it. We root for the team, its players and the city it represents. THAT'S IT - NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS.

Anonymous wrote:I scanned a lot of the posts, but not all. My only comment is that this is MoCo - the local team is the RAVENS!!! Go Ravens!

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Teachers should not have personalities.

Anonymous wrote:"Hail to the Redskins" sounds like honor and homage. The segregated liberal white community is borderline bipolar.

Anonymous wrote:

No. The objection is to the offensive nature of the term "redskins" and lines like "braves on the warpath" and such.

What's that sound??? The sound of quasi-intellectual liberals sucking the joy out of a childhood and a teacher trying to have a little fun.

My two daughters, both die hard Ravens fans, will stand up to anyone, even a teacher. They've been able to stand up to teachers, fellow male students and pretty much anyone else... this as young as 6 years old. No one is brainwashing your special snowflake, they are not destined for a life of bigotry by the horrors of being exposed to someone who supports their professional home team.

Why not take this as an educational opportunity, everyone does not have to share your narrow opinion, and ou don't have to ram it down everyone throat.

Since we moved here I've seen a lot of this guilt manifested by people who intentionally live in all white neighborhoods, send their kids to schools with very low farms rates and squawk about issues like this without ever really exposing their children to any real diversity.

BTW killjoy, Redskins are not "braves on the warpath" that would be the Atlanta Braves.

Anonymous wrote:Our child is in a young elementary grade in a very well-respected Montgomery County elementary school. At the before-school open house, along with our child, we visited his classroom to meet his teacher and saw some prominently displayed Redskins paraphernalia (flag, poster, etc). and were told by the teacher that if the Redskins win over the weekend, her father will come to class on Monday and lead the children in "Hail to the Redskins."

My husband and I are quite disturbed by this. We find the Redskins name, song, etc. really offensive, and don't want our kid inundated with Redskins stuff at his public school - especially at a young but able-to-understand age. There are entire networks and newspapers that are even refusing to use the name, so we know we aren't crazy. Yet, we also understand that there are lots of people who don't see it as a big deal.

We'd like to bring up our discomfort, but how? To whom? We worry both about burning bridges and also not sticking to what we truly believe. Any ideas & opinions are appreciated...

Anonymous wrote:

No. The objection is to the offensive nature of the term "redskins" and lines like "braves on the warpath" and such.

What's that sound??? The sound of quasi-intellectual liberals sucking the joy out of a childhood and a teacher trying to have a little fun.

My two daughters, both die hard Ravens fans, will stand up to anyone, even a teacher. They've been able to stand up to teachers, fellow male students and pretty much anyone else... this as young as 6 years old. No one is brainwashing your special snowflake, they are not destined for a life of bigotry by the horrors of being exposed to someone who supports their professional home team.

Why not take this as an educational opportunity, everyone does not have to share your narrow opinion, and ou don't have to ram it down everyone throat.

Since we moved here I've seen a lot of this guilt manifested by people who intentionally live in all white neighborhoods, send their kids to schools with very low farms rates and squawk about issues like this without ever really exposing their children to any real diversity.

BTW killjoy, Redskins are not "braves on the warpath" that would be the Atlanta Braves.

No. The objection is to the offensive nature of the term "redskins" and lines like "braves on the warpath" and such.