What’s a “Redskin?”

1. Wow.Makes me want to write the owner of the Washington Redskins and tell him that if he changes the team name I’ll start cheering for the Dallas Cowboys.
   NO-ONE gives a rats patute about the name except a handful of Indian malcontents. No-one and I mean NO-ONE associates the Washington Redskins or Cleveland Indians with Native Americans.

2. Not sure where Billy is getting his info from…I am Native (Navajo) and pretty much all of my Native friends, which is a lot, care deeply about this issue!
   Thank you for posting this!

3. Well when they name a team the Paleface Treaty Breakers, we’ll see how everyone feels. And it’s a true name, unlike Redskin.

4. To any and all who think a name of a sports team effects you……..GET A LIFE.

5. Billy, you’re aware that the logos for both teams feature dudes with feathers in their hair, not to mention (in the Washington team’s case) a fairly distinct image of a Native man.

   To pile on, the ever-present Wikipedia (which I’m sure you can find while you Google Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s mailing address) has a handy article on the history of the word “redskin” (found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redskin_(slan…)), stating “[T[he consensus based upon a comparison of current media usage and dictionary definitions is that the term has negative or disparaging connotations.”

   Also, it’s “affects.” Try not to shoot yourself in the foot while you’re trying to make a point, cowboy.

6. Billy,

   If a name of a sports team affects no one, then why are you so upset about the possibility of changing names?

7. As a Lakota myself this is a non issue. There were some points brought up in the ad, poverty, education, alcohol / drug use, elder care, but team names are at the bottom of the list of Native concerns. Any Native that is more concerned with renaming a sports team, than improving their own community, simply has mixed priorities.

8. Words are incredibly powerful things. If they weren’t, Mad Men and political spin-meisters wouldn’t make so much money. “Redskins” isn’t just a word. It’s an attitude expressed every time the team name is used. Making a change not only gets the offensive term out of general usage. It makes a powerful statement that we recognize the power of negative stereotypes and are working to correct them.

9. Fred-because meddling panty waiste liberals are ruining this country.PC bullstein like this needs to be stopped in it’s tracks.

   Markus-thank you for the logic and telling it the way IT REALLY is.

   David-you just proved my earlier liberal remark.If you are offended by the name of a sports team,tehn like I said earlier,you really need to get a life.And besides-you’re not even a football fan.

10. I hear what they are saying. However, most teams pick names that they are proud of and denote power or strength. So in a weird way it is actually a compliment.

11. Indians hate the term ”native American”. They prefer Indian or the name of their tribe. At least this goes for the Indians here in Ohio. They feel native American is what some white guy thought up. As for chief Wahoo on my Indian’s uniform, it’s respect.

12. Smith-absolutely.These twits would have people thinking that teams picked insults as names.
    Glen-thanks for being “another one” who gets it.

13. I am so lily white that my skin is practically pink. In my former pre Tucson life, I taught at the University of Illinois (the Fighting Illini) who had an Indian mascot. There were a number of Indian students attending the university that protested the mascot as well as faculty and non Indian students. The mascot typically was also a lily white frat boy, dressed up as a generic Indian doing a strange half time dance, unrelated to any real Native American ritual. It was difficult for the university to eliminate the mascot due to threats from powerful donors. It all comes down to the bottom line. Finally the mascot was removed after years of controversy. One professor I know had death threats due to his efforts to change the schools identity. Ethnicity or religious identity in my opinion has no ethical place in symbolizing sports teams. These teams are big corporate businesses. I hope as a culture we can be better than this and evolve. Being politically correct is not always bad, it is simply a process of being critical of our history of a culture. Honest criticism often brings improvement and evolution. Would the term “nigger”, “wetback”, or “gook” be appropriate for a corporate logo?

14. To Billy,
    “waiste” is not a word. Your ease and quickness to name call (twits and panty-waiste (?)) and judge people who write comments reflects your infantile attitude toward the subject. That level of immaturity is also revealed with your shallow views, reactionary rants and lack of ability to understand other points of view regarding the tagging of people/organizations. Love or hate professional or college sports, they are a large part of our culture and wouldn’t it be better if we as a society erred on the side of dignity and respect for all people or organizations? This is not a major topic in our difficult current world situation yet I believe we must take large and small steps to display respect for one another.

15. The word Apache means “the enemy”. Their own word for themselves is Indeh. The term Apache still carries a lot of weight and power for non Apaches as well as the Apaches themselves. Take a poll at the White Mountain Apaches or the San Carlos Apaches and see if they want to change the name. Don’t think they will.

16. Gee, after killing many of them, taking their land, forcibly relocating them onto reservations, maybe the least we could do as an admittedly small, small, sign of respect is change the name of a sports team. At least it would bring some attention to some of the issues the first Americans are facing today.

17. Fraser, I’m not sure what your point is. Navajo means thieves. They call themselves Diné. I’m not sure why they haven’t “officially” changed their name, maybe they make money off the name recognition. It’s not my business. Same with Tohono who were Papago (terpary-bean eater) and did officially change their name.
    What does that have to do with a non-Native group (the Redskins) making money off a disparaging term for Native Americans?

18. Markus you are entitled to your opinion, however, I would just like to say that I am very capable of being involved in many causes that affect Native people at the same time, just because I care about this does not mean that I care less about other issues.

    Billy I encourage you to review research on this topic and its negative effects on Natives, this is not just about being pc, these mascots have significant consequences to Natives, particularly the youth. As a Native American, and as a mother to a Native American, I cannot simply “get over it”.
    To help you out, here is a link to a report on the topic by Dr Stephanie Fryberg –http://sitemaker.umich.edu/daphna.oyserman…

    I find it funny when non-Natives who have such strong opinions about this topic tell us to “get over it”…you first.

19. Carrie,
    I genuinely appreciate your voice and perspective on this issue.
    Cheers!
    R

20. By definition aren’t 90% of us “Native Americans”?

21. I’ve always been looking at the changing of the name of the Red Skin’s as rather silly – just another way to try and be “politically correct”. I had only seen white people (I mark myself as European American on papers as that’s where my ancestors came from) talk about this – never a Native American of any Nation within the United States.
    After watching this film I’ve changed my mind. Let’s find something more appropriate – perhaps the people of a Indian Nation in that part of the country could come up with one?

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