Detroit News Bans Use of 'Redskins' In Football Coverage
The Detroit News will no longer use the term 'Redskins' in its football coverage, "reflecting the growing view that the term is offensive to many Americans." No word on whether the paper will discontinue referring to the state of Oklahoma as such, considering it quite literally means 'red people' in Choctaw.
[Ed-S: Reinstating this thread, but we're gonna be moderating closely. Don't be an asshole no matter how much you think someone else is being an asshole rules in effect.]
without strong educational opportunities or political representation. Yeah, there's a group with a strong voice to "line up".
This argument is embarrassing to the blog.
New York Negros. New lax team in NYS.
Let's go Negros! (jsut using it for team pride)
come on negros! (still team pride)
Here we go Negros, here we go ! (team pride)
your argument fails so easily
Racism is a strong part of American culture.
#SadButTrue
It seems pretty universal. We just happen to have a lot of diversity.
the team's name was changed to redskins to honor the head coach at the time who was part Sioux. Also there are many native american high schools that use the name.
And the precise equivalent would be absolutely unthinkable, and everyone here knows it.
The Onion pretty much went there (in a somewhat different direction) last October:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/redskins-kike-owner-refuses-to-change-…
And on the topic of precise equivalents, try picturing Chief Wahoo as any other race and imagine how long that logo would be allowed to stick around.
If anyone called me this to my face, it would take every ounce of my being not to F*&^ them up. Its messed up.
Why do white people get so angry about us wanting them to stop using a racial slur about us? Seems like not using that word would be the cordial thing to do.
Its those same "white people" who feel that they should be allowed to use the word "nigga" because African-Americans say it to each other... Which, in all honesty, shouldn't matter to them.
Half the "white people" on this board agree with you. Please don't alienate the non-ignorant people by lumping everyone together.
#NotAllWhitePeople
So in all seriousness, what are they going to call the team now?
The Washington Football Club. Washington, for short.
It's not really all that difficult to avoid using a team's nickname. "Washington" and context will usually do the job.
This might work. The libs wouldn't be upset as it doesn't denigrate a minority and the conservatives would probably be honored as they generally don't take themselves as serious.
So, why aren't we upset over the term red-neck, hillbilly or cracker? I'm sorry, I don't fully understand the PC rules.
No one likes it! I would prefer to name them the D.C. Corruptors.
Native names dropped by DI universities over the years
- Miami (NTM) Redskins became the Miami (NTM) RedHawks
- Eastern Washington Savages(!) became the Eastern Washington Eagles (best known for their red field)
- Quinnipiac Braves became the Quinnipiac Bobcats
- Seattle University Cheiftains became the Seattle Skyhawks. Boo this. The world needs more Chieftains.
- EMU obviously
- Arkansas State Indians changed to the Arkansas State Red Wolves not that long ago
- Both St. John's and UMass dropped their Redmen nickname in favor of Red Storm and Minutement respectively
Just to name a few.
that all those name changes resulted in cooler, more creative names (except for the savages, that is a pretty bad ass name)
EMU really went outside the box picking Eagles.
I find the term minutemen insulting.....and accurate.
There's a difference between overly sensitive and basic consideration and empathy for another person's heritage and past.
I just don't see this as a real "racism" issue.
Next thread please.
I'm shocked you don't (can't) see the harm. Let me guess.... white guy?
There are much bigger issues in this world than the naming of a team "Redskins". Those issues tend to be very complex, deep, and difficult to find genuinely good and positive outcomes for. I think it's a common problem that, as a society, we spend so much time worrying about the low-hanging fruit that only runs surface deep.
There is racism in the name. In my opinion, there are much more rooted problems dealing with racism in our society today that we should be facing and spending more time on than the name "Redskins". That doesn't make the name right. It makes it a simple fix so we can move on to other things. Then we're not spending time worrying about this rather than more complex issues.
And that's why such a minor-world issue should be able to be addressed and dropped and moved on from with one simple, appropriate measure: change the name.
I'm part Native and I whole-heartily approve; yes Mrs. StephenRKass, REALLY.
barons, saxons, friars, kings, are all names we use, rally around, adore if that's your team. and redskin is used in the exact same CONTEXT.
otherwise, i hereby appoint myself to represent other under-represented entities, and demand that names like the 'wolverines', badgers, wildcats, longhorns, banana slugs and others be removed from the national lexicon. now.
all of those other titles have centuries worth of background as bloody beserkers, raping, piliging, theiving, and all of that. but we all know that in the context of a sports team, to use the word, for instance, 'knights', is a revered name, a proud name, a name of honor. i have never, ever, heard of the variations of redskins, indians, braves, chiefs, blackhawks in the context of sports used in any other fashion but fun and good spirits, go-team-go fashion.
if you waited most or all of your whole lifetime to protest, and if you didn't also sign the petition to ban these other 'offensive' names like knights and green wave, spare us the self-oppression and the manufactured outrage.
p.s. i am the proud father of more children with very dark skin than almost everyone on this mostly lilly-white (enjoyable) blog, one of which children is literally hanging on my arm right now making it difficult to type, so i can take him to bed.
By your logic, any word for "white person" would mean the same thing, but that doesn't make it a racial slur.
that comment. I don't think any word for a caucasian is the same thing.
If your point is that we should not honor those who raped, piliged, etc. Sure, ok. But that is a different discussion than the one taking place in this thread. The primary issue I have seen represented on the board is that Redskin refers to the people who were being killed, not the ones doing the killing.
This argument is nonsense. None of those terms have a deragatory origin, how are they at all similar to Redskins? The lack of perspective by some here is pretty interesting.
You're a horrible horrible person
It's amazing to me that even on a board where most of the posters are pretty well-educated, there is still so much defense of using a racial slur as the name for a football team.
This should be a very simple issue. On one side of the ledger we have 30% of Native Americans who find the term "extremely offensive" according to the most recent polling, and on the other side we have people buying football jerseys and cheering on an NFL team. This is a no-brainer.
The first trademark lawsuit was filed more than 20 years ago. I'm not going to blame you for not being aware, we've been sweeping the Native Americans under the rug of collective conscience ever since we stopped massacring them.
What the hell did I do? I'm 37 years old. How far back do I have to feel guilty about the inhumanities of the past? 100 years? 1000?
Nobody is asking you to feel guilty.