About time! Washington Redskins announce intention to change nickname

[AustinMommyofThree]

It's past time, but fortunately their sponsors and many members of the ownership syndicate finally stepped up and said the Redskins name and logo must be removed. It sounds like the new name and logo will be forthcoming, but in the meantime this is great news!

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-nickname-logo-developing-new-name-and-design

 

[littlejimmy]

Serious question. who decides its offensive? Because everything I read, Native Americans overwhelmingly support the current name. and if it changes to the Warriors, I am seriously upset at Marquette for changing its nickname years ago.

 

[starvenger]

Serious question. who decides its offensive? Because everything I read, Native Americans overwhelmingly support the current name. and if it changes to the Warriors, I am seriously upset at Marquette for changing its nickname years ago.

Really depends on the survey. But I don't think that really mattered much in the grand scheme of things. Not like Snyder listened to them before.

Realistically it was Pepsi and Nike and FedEx and minority owners putting pressure on Snyder by costing him $$$ that is forcing the name change.

 

[BrianL]

Serious question. who decides its offensive? Because everything I read, Native Americans overwhelmingly support the current name. and if it changes to the Warriors, I am seriously upset at Marquette for changing its nickname years ago.

While there is some support amongst Native Americans there is also opposition. There are more complicated origins to the name than it sounds like on the surface too, however sometimes these things grow and change beyond the original meaning. Regardless of whether the intent was racist, there are definitely racist connotations now regardless of how that came to be. In the end, it's a business decision and will probably be a good move. I think they can generate a lot of excitement for the team if they really nail the new branding.

 

[Searc]

Serious question. who decides its offensive? Because everything I read, Native Americans overwhelmingly support the current name. and if it changes to the Warriors, I am seriously upset at Marquette for changing its nickname years ago.

Native Americans do not overwhelmingly support the offensive nickname.

 

[BrianL]

Native Americans do not overwhelmingly support the offensive nickname.

I've always read that some groups do and some don't, but it's always easy to find the people that will agree with you and tout them as an example, even when most others don't feel that way. I think it comes down to do you want to offend some people or no people. There are always a few ways to look at something like this, but in the end the felings of people who are offended by it are valid and it's up to the organization to do something about that. Sadly, they have never taken action on it before because they didn't see the business reason for it, but now they do and will try to capitalize as much as possible on it.

 

[tzolkin]

Serious question. who decides its offensive? Because everything I read, Native Americans overwhelmingly support the current name. and if it changes to the Warriors, I am seriously upset at Marquette for changing its nickname years ago.

American Indians do not overwhelmingly support using native stereotypes as sports mascots.

There was a poll in the early 2000s done by Sports Illustrated that indicated that the majority did not find the images discriminatory, but that has been debunked with more recent studies. (And it's not even clear if the people SI polled were actually native.)

This has been a controversy for decades (at least since the 1960s) and has been written about countless times over the years. I have never met an indigenous person in either my personal or academic life (my degree is in Native American Studies) who believes that Indian mascots are positive. Even if the majority would not go as far as using terms like "offended" or "discriminated against" to describe their feelings on the topic, that doesn't mean they support it. There are plenty of things that I would answer "no" if you asked me if I was personally offended, but I may still think they are inappropriate or wrong.

 

[CynBeth]

I don’t get why only the Redskins get so much flack and not the Indians, Braves, and Chiefs.

 

[Moliphino]

I don’t get why only the Redskins get so much flack and not the Indians, Braves, and Chiefs.

The Indians did recently change some logos to try to be less racist. And those names don't seem quite as racist as Redskins.

 

[AustinMommyofThree]

I don’t get why only the Redskins get so much flack and not the Indians, Braves, and Chiefs.

I suspect it's in part because Redskin is actively a slur. I suspect the other teams may also look to change their names, but they are a degree of magnitude less offensive.

 

[BrianL]

The Indians did recently change some logos to try to be less racist. And those names don't seem quite as racist as Redskins.

The difference is that one team makes reference specifically to skin color while the others don't. The term 'redskin' though was not originally used as a pejorative and referred specifically to warriors, though eventually white settlers started using it as such and gave it an ignominious history. So there is definitely a difference between that and the other teams.

 

[soccerdad72]

I don’t get why only the Redskins get so much flack and not the Indians, Braves, and Chiefs.

The Indians dropped Chief Wahoo (which was an offensive stereotypical mascot) a couple years ago and have announced that they're discussing changing the team name as well. Probably won't happen until 2022 according to some reports.

 

[bcla]

Looks like the team is going to have to deal with trademark registration squatters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/07/13/trademark-rights-redskins-new-name/

 

[starvenger]

They clearly did it wrong then.

Figure out the new name, register the trademarks, THEN make the announcement.

Then again, this is the Washington football team we're talking about.

 

[kdonnel]

They should keep the name but change the mascot.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Considering they haven't won a superbowl since 92 and haven't even competed in a conference title game since 91, I suggest the Washington Generals. You know, the name of the team that lost to the Globetrotters all the time.

 

[soccerdad72]

How about the Washington Sentinels?

 

[bcla]

How about the Washington Sentinels?

They never used real NFL team names nor called it the NFL. I forgot what they called the stadium, but they filmed it at the stadium in Baltimore.

Didn't Disney have a movie set in the NFL? The team was the California Atoms, but they used one real NFL team (the 49ers) as their opponent. Also a made up name (Mammoths) for another opponent.

 

[JimMIA]

How about the Washington Sentinels?

How about "Washington Swamp Rats?"

"K Street Krusaders?" Naw, that could be construed as religious.

 

[bcla]

How about "Washington Swamp Rats?"

"K Street Krusaders?" Naw, that could be construed as religious.

There were the Washington Senators. What about the Washington Representatives?