Time to change Redskins name
Last week, the U.S. Patent Office did something interesting: they canceled six registered trademarks for the name “Redskins,” essentially getting the ball rolling for a forced name change for the Washington Redskins.
Cue the outrage!
Even people who don’t root for the Redskins and have no dog in the fight find the very idea of a name change deeply troubling and even offensive. Some crow about the dire effects of “political correctness” in America. Others claim changing the name will weaken the proud tradition of football, which, to hear them tell it, apparently needs racism in order to exist.
Even worse are the actual Redskins fans, who are acting as though a name change essentially means the total elimination of every single positive memory and association they have with the team from their childhood to the present. They tell emotionally charged stories about huddling with a group of Redskins fans in the stands on a winter’s day, or cheering the team from their living rooms with their fathers and grandfathers. As if these memories will just disappear altogether if the Redskins become the Redbirds (or whatever replacement name they may come up with).
Native Americans have some football stories to share, too.
Like Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo activist who attended a game to peacefully protest the Redskins name and had beer flung at her, along with insults like, “Go back to your reservation!” “We won, you lost,” and “Get over it.”
Even before she received these insults, she observed football crowds enacting offensive stereotypes, including an opposing team yelling “Scalp him!” at the team mascot.
But the Redskins fans and the anti-PC crowd, of course, find their own emotional comfort and “rights” to be of the utmost importance. They want fairness and justice! For their voices to be heard — because this is America!
Meanwhile, voices claiming actual offense because their race is being appropriated and essentially mocked are oversensitive whiners.
In the same breath, these sports fans yell about how easily offended Americans are, how this oversensitivity will be the death of us, and then proceed to shed crocodile tears about how a name change will tarnish the happy memories of their childhood and destroy the thing they love most in the world. (Football, of course.)
In fact, so offended were a bipartisan group of politicians, they formed the “Redskins Pride” caucus, with the goal of fighting the patent decision. Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City, Va.) sees the group as defenders of the voiceless.
“And the bottom line is we’re just here to support the fans and give the fans a voice, because I felt like they didn’t have a voice,” he told The Washington Post.
Poor sports fans. No one ever hears the sports fans speak! It’s not like their voices fill stadiums with offensive chants and gestures every Sunday. It’s not like they dump beer on women who are trying to make their own voices heard.
Part of what makes this issue sticky is that, in fact, some Native Americans do not see an issue with the name, both at the professional level and the high school level (there are 42 high schools that use the name Redskins, as well).
Some even take pride in the name; they see it as recognition when there is not much recognition for Native Americans. These examples of Native Americans who support the Redskins are perpetually referenced by those who want the name to stay.
The examples come up so often, in fact, that before I wrote this column I was convinced a majority of Native Americans weren’t bothered by it. Then I did some research and learned that the most recent study, undertaken by Cal State University in San Bernardino, found that 67 percent of Native Americans find “Redskins” to be a racist slur.
Those voices are the voices we should listen to.
In the end, however, it seems doubtful any name change is forthcoming. The Redskins are gearing up for a lengthy legal battle, and, historically, money talks louder than even the loudest stadium of sports fans.
Still, wounded sports fans need to realize they are the true whiners. After all, it’s only a game.
Jessica Vozel is originally from Perryopolis and, after attending graduate school and teaching in Ohio, now works as a freelance journalist and copywriter in the Pittsburgh area.