Posted on 08/09/2013 8:16:00 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
This is the last Slate article that will refer to the Washington NFL team as the Redskins.
For decades, American Indian activists and others have been asking, urging, and haranguing the Washington Redskins to ditch their nickname, calling it a racist slur and an insult to Indians. They have collected historical and cultural examples of the use of redskin as a pejorative and twice sued to void the Redskins trademark, arguing that the name cannot be legally protected because it’s a slur. (A ruling on the second suit is expected soon; the first failed for technical reasons.) A group in the House of Representatives also recently introduced a bill to void the trademark. The team has been criticized from every different direction, by every kind of person. More than 20 years ago, Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser, no politically correct squish, urged the team to abandon the name. Today, the mayor of Washington, D.C.—the mayor!—goes out of his way to avoid saying the team’s name.
Why, then, has nothing changed? Because the choice of the team’s name belongs to one person, Washington owner Daniel Snyder. He has brushed off the controversy with arm waves at “tradition,” “competitiveness,” and “honor.” He recently told USA Today, “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER—you can use caps.” Earlier this year, some Redskins flunky was assigned the job of locating high school teams around the country called Redskins, and found 70 of them, which proved very little except that the Redskins are capable of spreading a bad example to the young. (A Google search of “Redskins” “nickname” and “high school” turns up story after story of schools dropping the nickname.) And this May, the team pathetically trotted out a guy named Chief Dodson to explain that his people were “quite honored” ...
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Based on these complaints, there are many team names which are offensive:
Boston Celtics is insulting to the real Celtic people.
Minnesota Vikings is offensive to real Vikings.
Oakland Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Pirates are offensive to the criminal element.
San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels, New Orleans Saints, are all offensive to religion.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish is offensive to the Irish.
Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Seattle Mariners, all offensive to people who do those jobs for a living.
What about all of the animal nicknames? Where is the PETA crowd on this issue? Isn’t it offensive to Dolphins, Panthers, Jaguars, Ravens, Falcons, etc. to have so many teams with animal nicknames?
Chicago White Sox must be racist.
Phoenix Suns? In an era of concern about global warming, how can we name a team after the sun???
How much NFL coverage does Slate usually carry? I’m guessing this is like me announcing I will no longer eat liver.
How about the Miami Dolphins? Animal cruelty!
The Eagles, Falcons, Seahawks, Cardinals...bird abuse!
Based on these complaints, there are many team names which are offensive:
...I’ve heard it said that team names will not be deemed acceptable, in some circles, until all trace of ‘life’, or ‘vitality’ is removed...I put forth the ‘Indianapolis Inorganics...
Slate probably also wants the Washington team players to not tackle Black runningbacks as that would be racist no doubt.
I find “Plotz” offensive....
It’s almost comical.
When everyone’s the same, the libs want diversity.
When everyone’s different, they are offended.
“Well they already got rid of the “Bullets”.”
Since that was “offensive” they changed the team name to the “wizards” - the name of high ranking members of the KKK.
Doh!
OMG! Now what will we do if Slate will not use the term redskin. We are doomed I tell you! Doomed!
The Washington Welfare Queens
The Washington Crack Heads
The Washington Kenyans
The Washington Souljahs
The Washington Sell-Outs
The Washington Tyrants
The Washington Bureaucrats
The Washington Corruptocrats
AND (my favorite) The Washington Lewinskys
The Washington “R Words”.
The team never used the name Redskins as a slur; ergo, there is no case against its use by them.
The vast majority of American Indians have no problem with the name as they realize its use in that context is nothing less than a compliment.
I actually have an answer. It's because "people of color" was coined by liberal PC police and "colored people" wasn't. The NAACP includes "colored people" in its name because it really isn't a slur.
My favorite: The Washington Bitch-Set-Me-Ups
Chargers offensive to horses.
Wait ‘till they find out the name of the Compton High School mascot.
COWBOY is a negitive too. Look how many Redskin’s they slaughtered. We need to ban the Cowboy’s too. For that matter Chief’s. Why do they do the Tomahawk Chop in KC at the Chief’s game.
Needs to be investigated by the IRS.
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