Washington Redskins

Leonidas_meets_Spartacus

I thought this was controversy about nothing, but I think Jon Stewart nailed this issue by bringing in both sides. If this word is derogatory to Native Americans like N word, I don't see an issue with changing the name. Other native names like braves,chiefs etc celebrate their culture not trash them like Red Skins.

Leonidas_meets_Spartacus

Regardless of how I view it, the owner of a franchise has the absolute right to name it whatever he wants. And that goes double when said owner is the tenured owner in the League. The liberal media makes me want to puke!

What really gets me is the big elephant in the room that everyone is afraid to address. We need to stop pu$$y footing around the issue and bring it to the forefront.

Here goes and I guess that someone will report me to MFP.

Dan Snyder is Jewish, and one would have thought he have some empathy with the Native Americans regarding that name. Yes, we all know that he bought the team with the name, but if the shoe was on the other foot, and the team was named after something related to the "holocaust", the uproar would have been far worse and the name would have been changed a long time ago.

Makes sense.

Snip8241

Yep........

besaro

ignorant comments are ignorant.

asdowe13

Regardless of how I view it, the owner of a franchise has the absolute right to name it whatever he wants. And that goes double when said owner is the tenured owner in the League. The liberal media makes me want to puke!

What really gets me is the big elephant in the room that everyone is afraid to address. We need to stop pu$$y footing around the issue and bring it to the forefront.

Here goes and I guess that someone will report me to MFP.

Dan Snyder is Jewish, and one would have thought he have some empathy with the Native Americans regarding that name. Yes, we all know that he bought the team with the name, but if the shoe was on the other foot, and the team was named after something related to the "holocaust", the uproar would have been far worse and the name would have been changed a long time ago.

But it's not Native American Tribes that have an issue with the name, it's a bunch of white male politicians.....this has everythign to do with politics and very little to do with Slandering of a race.

laurenjill

I would fully support a team named the Salty Crackers.

SuperVixen2B

But it's not Native American Tribes that have an issue with the name, it's a bunch of white male politicians.....this has everythign to do with politics and very little to do with Slandering of a race.

A few native people's would disagree with you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins_name_controversy#Native_Americans_and_organizations_opposed

The following groups have passed resolutions or issued statements regarding their opposition to the name of the Washington NFL team:

Tribes[edit]

Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians[290]
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma[290]
Comanche Nation of Oklahoma[290]
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Washington)[290]
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (Michigan)
Hoh Indian Tribe[291]
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona[292]
Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes[293][294]
Juaneño Band of Mission Indians (California)[290]
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians (Michigan)
Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, Gun Lake Tribe (Michigan)[295]
Menominee Tribe of Indians (Wisconsin)[290]
Oneida Indian Nation (New York)[296]
Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin[290]
Navajo Nation Council[182]
Penobscot Nation[297]
Poarch Band of Creek Indians[298]
Samish Indian Nation (Washington)[299]
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (Michigan)[300]
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (Idaho)[301]
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (North Dakota)
The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation (North Dakota)[302]
United South and Eastern Tribes (USET)[303]

Organizations[edit]

Advocates for American Indian Children (California)
American Indian Mental Health Association (Minnesota)
American Indian Movement[304]
American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center of San Bernardino County
American Indian Student Services at the Ohio State University
American Indian High Education Consortium
American Indian College Fund
Americans for Indian Opportunity
Association on American Indian Affairs
Buncombe County Native American Inter-tribal Association (North Carolina)
Capitol Area Indian Resources (Sacramento, CA)
Concerned American Indian Parents (Minnesota)
Council for Indigenous North Americans (University of Southern Maine)
Eagle and Condor Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance
First Peoples Worldwide
Fontana Native American Indian Center, Inc. (California)
Governor’s Interstate Indian Council
Greater Tulsa Area Indian Affairs Commission[305]
Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (Wisconsin)
HONOR – Honor Our Neighbors Origins and Rights
Kansas Association for Native American Education
Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs
Medicine Wheel Inter-tribal Association (Louisiana)
Minnesota Indian Education Association
National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
National Indian Child Welfare Association
National Indian Education Association
National Indian Youth Council
National Native American Law Student Association
Native American Caucus of the California Democratic Party
Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA)[306]
Native American Journalists Association[307]
Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio
Native American Journalists Association
Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
Native Voice Network
Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi (Michigan)
North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs
North Dakota Indian Education Association
Office of Native American Ministry, Diocese of Grand Rapids (Michigan)
Ohio Center for Native American Affairs
San Bernardino/Riverside Counties Native American Community Council
Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
Society of Indian Psychologists of the Americas
Southern California Indian Center
St. Cloud State University – American Indian Center
Tennessee Chapter of the National Coalition for the Preservation of Indigenous Cultures
Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs
Tennessee Native Veterans Society
Tulsa Indian Coalition Against Racism[308]
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Unified Coalition for American Indian Concerns, Virginia
The United Indian Nations of Oklahoma
Virginia American Indian Cultural Resource Center
Wisconsin Indian Education Association
WIEA “Indian” Mascot and Logo Taskforce (Wisconsin)
Woodland Indian Community Center-Lansing (Michigan)
Youth “Indian” Mascot and Logo Task force (Wisconsin)

Individuals[edit]

Interviews at a powwow in Towson, Maryland find several Native Americans who favor a change of the Redskins name.[309]

These Native Americans have put their opposition to the Redskins' name on the public record:

Sherman Alexie (Spokane, author): "Most, you know, at least half the country thinks the mascot issue is insignificant. But I think it's indicative of the ways in which Indians have no cultural power."[310]

Bruce Anderson (Coquille people): "I challenge [owner Dan Snyder] to focus on winning ... but also an opportunity for me to simply sit with my grandchildren to watch my former team without having to cut through the racial stereotypes."[311]

Irene Bedard (Inupiat, Inuit and Métis, actress): She's really upset about some of the costumes the cheerleaders have worn through the years -- calling them over sexualized and "degrading" to proud Native American women like herself.[312]

Notah Begay (Navajo, PGA pro golfer) called the Redskins' name "a very clear example of institutionalized degradation of an ethnic minority."[313]

Clyde Bellecourt (Ojibwe, co-founder of the American Indian Movement)[314]

Bob Burns (Blackfeet elder)[315]

Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne, U.S. Senator)[231]

Vine Deloria, Jr. (Sioux, historian/author)[316]

Louise Erdrich (Chippewa, novelist/poet) - "It’s more than a stereotype, it’s an insult, and they don’t have to perpetuate it."[317]

Claudia Fox Tree (Arawak, teacher) - "It’s part of a much larger issue in that those sort of depictions are our only representation in modern America. It isn’t just the sin of stereotypes and misinformation, it’s the sin of absence – of not seeing yourself or the people you come from anywhere, of not seeing any contemporary images."[318]

Kevin Gover (Pawnee, director of The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian)[319]

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee, author/activist)[320]

Jacqueline Keeler (Dineh/Yankton Dakota, writer and activist)

Litefoot (Cherokee/Chichimeca, rapper) ironically celebrates Native American team names as "recreational genocide" on the track 'Stereotipik'.[321]

Dana Lone Hill (Oglala Lakota Sioux, writer): The refusal to rename the Redskins is far worse than Donald Sterling's racist remarks.[322]

Russell Means (Oglala Lakota, activist/actor)[323]

Billy Mills (Sioux, Olympic gold medal winner)[324]

Ted Nolan (First Nations Ojibway, NHL player and coach)[325]
Oklahoma businessman Ryan Red Corn (Osage): Dan Snyder is an "idiot" for keeping the name.[326]

Buford Rolin (Creek tribal chairman)[209]

Gyasi Ross (Blackfeet Nation/Suquamish Territories, author/attorney): Regarding team supporters citing larger issue faced by Native Americans than a team name, "Native people shouldn't be forced to choose between living or racial discrimination. Those are false binaries."[327]

Shoni Schimmel (Umatilla, Louisville Cardinals guard, class of 2015)[328]

Charlene Teters (Spokane, artist/lecturer)[329]

Summer Wesley (Choctaw attorney, writer, and activist)[330]

W. Richard West Jr. (Cheyenne, President of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles): Redskin is "an openly derogatory term. It always is and it always has been.” West also characterizes the Original American's Foundation as an "attempt to divert attention from the fact that his team’s nickname is coming under increasing heat from people who think it’s an offensive racial term."[331]

Ray Young Bear (Meskwaki, author)[332]


ETA: I don't know what media is filling you with the idea that it's white male politicians solely against this, or that it's purely a Republican/Democrat issue - but maybe you need to take a look at the honesty of THOSE news sources and where their pockets are getting stuffed.

laurenjill

I think the real controversy is how bad they suck now.

No, I'm glad...... #CowboystakingtheNFCEastin2014

You say that now, but you'll finish the season 8-8 and miss the playoffs.

mmeans68

Political Correctness run amok.

Odwaroftorn

I just wonder why everybody picks on the Redskins but you hear NOTHING about similar pro sports franchises (Blackhawks, Chiefs, Indians, Braves, etc.)

Because they aren't giving millions of dollars to the Republican Party. Dan Snyder is, so he's the one targeted.

This is a political attack. It is not about racism, it's an attack on a Huge donor to the opposition. Look at where the attack and accusations originated and how many US Senators of the Democratic Party signed a letter calling for the name change, All Of Them.

Whether this is a truly offensive name to Native Americans or not, I don't know, but the polls I've seen indicate it is not. The offense is that Dan Snyder has given vast sums of monetary donations to the Republican Party and like the Koch Brothers, the Democratic Party is trying to eliminate this from happening again.

This name change is political, not racist, it's about money.

Oxmarqt

I will not support any Tribe, or anyone else for that matter, requesting to have the Washington Redskins change their name UNLESS they are also protesting and requiring that the State of Oklahoma also change their name.

Oklahoma = "Oklahoma is based on Choctaw Indian words which translate as red people (okla meaning "people" and humma meaning "red"). Recorded history for the name "Oklahoma" began with Spanish explorer Coronado in 1541"

So the WHOLE STATE is basically Red People....

http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Oklahoma/Oklahomanameorigin.html
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0854966.html

Luke_I_am_your_spotter

not a skins fan, but the news is over the top with this story lately. I honestly don't give a crap what they want to call themselves. That's on them, offensive or not. The skins have bigger issues than their team name and the NFL has MUCH bigger issues to deal with than this.

Jututix

It is a problem when you have ignorant people thinking it doesn't affect anyone when suicide by Native youth is three times the National average. It's the most idiotic concept to tie together competitive sports which also comes hand in hand to rivalry, mix in some ignorance and you have a recipe for pure racism. Kind of like what happened at this Sonic
http://consumerist.com/2013/12/09/sonic-is-really-really-sorry-about-that-scalp-the-redskinsfeed-them-whiskey-sign/
These types of attitudes and disrespect is NOT funny at all and just because a certain majority think that it is not important, it is in a matter of a fact, very important.

mccindy72

I think the real controversy is how bad they suck now.

No, I'm glad...... #CowboystakingtheNFCEastin2014

You say that now, but you'll finish the season 8-8 and miss the playoffs.

We shall see.

sofaking6

The word Redskin is a terrible legacy for the members of many tribes. For others, not. Frankly, I would be happy not to see ANY Indian mascots.

Just sayin'...

Oh I'm sorry, you must not be actually Native American since we all know for a fact that if you were, you would love that word and be properly grateful and honored by the Tomahawk Chop et al. </sarcasm>

Wow is this thread full of idiocy and lies. Such a sad thing, when people are so dedicated to being hurtful.

sofaking6

Regardless of how I view it, the owner of a franchise has the absolute right to name it whatever he wants. And that goes double when said owner is the tenured owner in the League. The liberal media makes me want to puke!

What really gets me is the big elephant in the room that everyone is afraid to address. We need to stop pu$$y footing around the issue and bring it to the forefront.

Here goes and I guess that someone will report me to MFP.

Dan Snyder is Jewish, and one would have thought he have some empathy with the Native Americans regarding that name. Yes, we all know that he bought the team with the name, but if the shoe was on the other foot, and the team was named after something related to the "holocaust", the uproar would have been far worse and the name would have been changed a long time ago.

As a Jew, I wholly concur.

Pennsylvania_Joe

So, anybody walk up to a Native American and call him a Redskin to his face yet?

rdmitche1

I am also offended by the TV show named "blackish" That should be changed as well.