No, ‘Washington Redskins’ Isn’t Offensive, But Here’s A Label That Is

The Washington Redskins football team name has been a powder keg of controversy on-and-off over the last few decades among a small portion of tribes and 100 percent of the politically correct crowd.

With President Barack Obama and a number of other politicians weighing in and advising team owner Daniel Snyder to change the name as recently as November, 2015, it’s surprising to some that it hasn’t happened already.

However, a new poll from the Washington Post — which is opposed to the Washington Redskins name by the way — revealed the misconception that those of us in the so-called “Native American” community are offended by it in some way.

In fact, nine in 10 polled said they were not bothered by the team name at all.

It’s not surprising either. Most of us have to deal with far more concerning issues than the Washington Redskins team name every day of our lives.

While I am fortunate not to be among the mass incarcerated, over-policed, poverty-stricken, jobless, land-stripped, and overcrowded, my people are not so fortunate.

If you want to an extensive analysis of all the many issues that our population faces in the United States, Huffington Post‘s Julian Brave NoiseCat did a phenomenal job of laying it all out in this July, 2015, piece.

The idea that “Washington Redskins” would be even the least bit concerning to us in the wake of all that is quite offensive on its own.

But then factor in the reality that white PC liberals are driving most of the hysteria surrounding it, and it’s infuriating.

Why?

Because it makes it seem like a football team’s name is the most troubling issue our community faces in the 21st Century United States.

Like the past sins of this country against its “Native American” population are behind us and we are so unaffected by the modern world that Snyder’s franchise is all we have to be worked up about.

Thanks for watching out for us, everyone.

If you really want to know a name that is offensive to most “Native Americans,” it’s the title of “Native American” itself. See, that got slapped on us when white people finally realized how stupid it was to call us “Indians” after realizing they weren’t in India when they found us.

Changing the title over to Native American absolved whites from this glaring error, but they simply couldn’t have us living here in the good ol’ United States of America while respecting our “savage” heritage.

We had to be assimilated on their terms, and so Native American is what we got stuck with.

While you are wringing your hands over the fact Snyder’s team name is — and will likely always be — the Washington Redskins, we’re still forced to eat the “appropriate” name for our people as having “American” in the title in spite of the fact you took our lands and herded us like cattle to portions of the country you decided on.

So if not “Indian;” if not “Native American;” what should you call us?

Start by learning more about our cultures. We’re not saying you have to learn much. Just enough to know that an Indian-is-an-Indian-is-an-Indian is too broad of a brush with which to paint.

We are Cherokee. We are Choctaw. We are Pequots. We are Seminole. We are Chitimacha.

Stop making it easier on yourselves by taking up these ridiculous fights that don’t matter to us in the least, all the while patting yourselves on the back for “doing something” in the name of equality and respect.

It’s ignorant of our history, our values, and our way of life; and it cheapens the real issues we do face.

That said, what do you think about the Washington Redskins name and the debate over it, good reader? Sound off in the comments section below.

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons / Keith Allison]