"Redskins" - Not Offensive - They Asked

Here we go again the the DC Metro area - another wave of controversy about the nickname of the football team.  This time, it's not the Native Americans protesting (because it never is), it's the multimillion dollar sponsors trying to score points on their PR by jumping on the media bandwagon generated by the anti-racism protests.

In 2014, former Redskins players wanted to know what Native Americans thought of the name "Redskins".  So they did the responsible thing.  THEY ASKED THEM.  And what they found was that the word was created by the Native Americans themselves.  And isn't a slur at all.

The Redskins logo was designed by a tribal chief from Montana in the early 1970s.

"He helped create that logo that we all love, and that is one example of just the facts and the truth and the things that a lot of people ignore," said team owner Dan Snyder. "And I think it's time that people look at the truth and the history and real meanings and look at us for what we are. We are a historical football team that is very proud and that has a great legacy and honors and respects people."

“What the Redskins name means now is awareness for the plight some Native Americans are going through,” former WR Gary Clark said. “All the people saying the name is racist, I see them doing nothing to support the Native Americans whatsoever.”

“Once you come to one reservation, you realize that none of this is about the name”

Some critics of the name, Moseley said, “don’t know what they’re talking about. They’ve done no research. They’ve never talked to an Indian. They have no knowledge of what Redskins really stands for. They just heard someone say this is like the N-word, and all of a sudden people jumped on the bandwagon and said it’s racist, and that’s ridiculous.

“We know it’s not a racist word,” Moseley said. “It’s not something they’re ashamed of. And at the same time, while doing this we found this need which is out there that we can help with, and so that’s what we’re doing.”

Cleveland's Chief Wahoo was a caricature of a Native American.  No Native Americans have ever said that they look like or aspire to look like that.  So they got rid of it.

Atlanta thought better of the "screaming Indian" logo and retired it in 1989.  (But almost brought it back in 2013).  It was a stereotypical image of an Indian, and did not portray Native Americans as they actually are.

Washington Bullets changed to the Wizards in the late 90's.  There is only one meaning to the word bullet.  It's the projectile fired from a gun.  There was a lot of gun violence and people dying in DC, so they got rid of it.

George Preston Marshall was the last team owner to integrate his team with African Americans.  He fought against the idea.  So they took his statue down.  OK fine.  But the original team that became the Redskins was coached by a Native American, and had six players of indian descent on the roster.  Marshall's prejudice didn't include Native Americans.

Redskins is the term that a lot of Native Americans use to describe Native Americans as a whole.  Otherwise, they describe themselves by the particular tribes they come from.  The only people who think it's 100% offensive are not Native Americans.  Another race has raised a fuss (justifiably so), so now these sponsor companies think that Native Americans have the exact same problems, so let's change NFL marketing.  What will this do to help Native Americans?  Nothing.

But money rules everything, so I guess we'll have to get used to the Washington football team being called the Capitalists.  Because that's all that seems to matter.  Native American issues will go unresolved and now be ignored even more.  But the corporations will be able to sleep at night, even though they're taking away an avenue to improve the lives of the people they think are being affected by the name.