Redskins Win In Appeals Court

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Brian Orakpo

I think its kinda sad when people start throwing out terms like "private entity". Thats kinda saying I know its a racial slur but people cant do anything about it so deal with it. That same attitude was the same attitude this Country had against African-Americans until the race stood up for themselves. The problem is their arent enough Native-Americans to really voice their anger over the team name imo compared to other races in this Country.

Please be clear, I am NOT saying, "I know it's a racial slur, but people can't do anything, so deal with it." I don't believe it to be a racial slur or I would agree with you. The faux outrage of NA activists on this issue really should make one look deeper at what their real motive is.

There are many names or things that can be perceived by one group or another to be offensive. There are many team names other groups may find offensive; Fighting Irish (focus on the drunken Irishman stereotype), Saints (atheists would find this offensive), the Razorback symbol at Arkansas or the "Hogs" (offensive to some Muslims as a pig is a low form of animal). The term "Redskin" and the N-word are two vastly different things. If you survey African Americans and ask if the N-word is a racial slur and if they would be against the term being used for a sports team, I'm pretty sure you'd get a 99%+ percent that the term is offensive. There is no positive or neutral connotation for that word at all. Yet in a survey of NA people, that the vast majority don't have a problem with NA team names, including Redskins, is very telling.

Do a Google search on "redskin" and the autolinks that come up are all about the Redskin team. Here is also an interesting read about the origins of the term Redskin, certainly not a negative or racist origin.

http://anthropology.si.edu/goddard/redskin.pdf

If you know Redskin team history, the name came about because the owner was honoring the coach who was NA and he also wanted to separate the team from the Braves name they had before. If the coach didn't resign or protest the team name, then I'd say we're on pretty solid ground here. This issue has only come about more recently in the PC world we live in.

The problem is when compared to the rest of this country the Indian population is quite small. If it was any other race of people the team name was offending the team name would of been changed a long time ago.

The size of NA population in the US has nothing to do with it. As I referenced in my last post, the problem is the NA team name issue offends NA activists and those with an agenda, not the NA people in general. Keep in mind it wasn't just African American folks who stood up for civil rights in this country, it was a consolidated effort by members of all races. If it was only African Americans, based on population count, we would not have made the progress towards racial equality that we have.