Topic: American Sports

@Arugula Hahahaha, the old ‘nobody liked them anyway’. It baffles me that it’s even a debate, it’s not like they have the Glendale Golliwoggs or Chesapeake Ching Chongs. Surely there must be something they could use that would be meaningful to the city, Washington Monuments wouldn’t be bad at all.

@nessisonett Washington Generals. 10 points to anyone who knows what that's a reference towards and No it's not a reference to General George Washington.

@Genrou To be fair, the Redskins lose just as much 😉

I have to say, I wasn’t expecting ‘Washington Football Team’. That’s proper disappointing coming from the country that has teams called Real Salt Lake, Inter Miami, Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche.

@Arugula I understand that it’s meant to offend nobody but man, calling it Football Team instead of Football Club is an insult to my very core 😂😂

@Arugula Yeah, hockey teams seem to have the best names and colour schemes, they definitely go all out!

@nessisonett Yeah, I didn’t realize “Washington Football Team” was the new name. Apparently it’s temporary though. But yes, it fits perfectly for the team based in the country’s capital city — as bland and generic as possible.
The funny thing about all this is that the NBA Washington Bullets changed their name to the Washington Wizards ages ago apparently due to the poor political image that the name had at the time, and yet “Bullets” seems way less offensive than the racial slur “Redskins”

But what will be interesting will be whether they will try to scrub the history of the team by modifying and taking the logo and name out of old images, trophies, monuments, and such. Like all the players and coaches from the team that are in the Hall of Fame pictured wearing a Native American on their helmet with the name “Redskins” all over.

@Th3solution The Washington Bullets changed their name due to the number of shootings in the Washington DC area of the time. I know alot of people contribute the name change to the D.C. Sniper Attacks but those happened a few years after the Bullets changed their name.

@Genrou Oh, I wasn’t sure but I assumed the change related to shootings of some kind. And I don’t disagree with the change, but the irony is that they were prompt to respond to a recent issue with the shootings and gun violence, yet racial tensions and civil rights have been an issue and a hot topic for decades, certainly since the 60’s. Ah well, better late than never.

@Th3solution Yeah, the Cleveland Indians are meeting with Native American representatives to discuss their name so it’s not just football. It’s almost as if large parts of American culture are rooted in systemic racism!

@Th3solution The Redskins name was a bit different. When the team was created in the 1930s they got the blessing from several Native American groups to use the name Redskin. The symbol was even created by a Native American artist who was very proud of it. It's this that generation has died off now and now the current generation gets offended by every little thing nowadays it seems and it's the cool thing now to be offended by something.

@Genrou The Redskins were the same team that refused to allow black players onto their team until 1962, when the government threatened to revoke the license on their stadium. This isn’t a few people online saying that the name is offensive, major sponsors threatened to stop supporting them, hence proving yet again that social change only matters when it hits them in the wallet. Times change.

@Arugula I dunno, I feel like there are surely better forms of representation than a bunch of white dudes making millions selling shirts and hats with wee pictures of Native American warriors on them. It’s not like they couldn’t change the name but still keep the Native American theme though, the argument was that it was commonly thought of as a slur, not that the whole theme was wrong. I saw an interview with a Native American writer who basically said that it was their equivalent of the N word, they use it towards each other shortened to ‘skins’ in a similar sense, but he felt that it wasn’t up to white people to use those sorts of terms.

@Arugula I think that the fact that the term is simply a labeling of the people by the color of their skin... well, it just hasn’t aged well in our current efforts to be colorblind as it relates to treatment and identification of others. To label someone based on their color is a tricky situation now and has a tendency to promote racism and be used by racists to demean others. Whether “redskin” originally was derogatory and whether it is used by Native Americans to refer to one another is immaterial. I’m not saying it has to make sense, but if enough people are uncomfortable with the term then it needs to go. It’s just not a good look. But I agree that the original usage of the moniker and history of the franchise is not necessarily one of mistreatment toward the Native American culture. But this is 2020, not 1940. Language evolves. Society evolves. The same would apply to the usage of the confederate flag emblem on the state flags of S. Carolina, Florida and other states that eventually realized that it wasn’t promoting unity, no matter the fact that it was part of the state’s heritage and was not racially charged in and of itself. Unfortunately, the symbol has been associated with racism enough that it can’t be endorsed in official government entities anymore. Like I say, it doesn’t have to make sense in an academic way, it has to be what is for the good of society and unity and that is to get rid of polarizing terms and images.

“I feel like historical power balance has been misinterpreted as racism.”
I do like this statement though. Very true. I think we’re sometimes hard on our ancestors and progenitors for the wrong reasons. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, to keep the football theme going 😜

@Th3solution It’s used between Native Americans in the sense that it’s a ‘reclamation’ of a word commonly used to put them down. I don’t think it’s ever been a term of endearment, let’s put it that way!

@nessisonett oh yeah - other racial groups have their own dichotomous terms as well. “Redneck”,” white boy”, “white trash”, etc. Used within the culture, people freely call themselves and friends those and will even wear the terms with honor, but if someone else call them that as a slur, it’s a different story.

@Th3solution Absolutely, it’s the same being Irish Catholic over here, we call ourselves Fenians, a word traditionally used derogatorily, but we wear it as a badge of honour in the sense of “yeah we are Fenians and what of it”. When ‘the other side’, shall we say, uses that word though, they’re definitely cruising for a bruising. It’s all about intent, for sure.

@nessisonett And perhaps that’s why the Washington Football Team has been given a pass for so many years, because the intent was always respectful toward the culture and the artwork was generated by Native American artists, etc. So I can’t be too critical of the past, but it is time to move forward with a new mascot.

@Th3solution You would think that it would be easy enough to gather a group of representatives from different Native American communities in the Washington area and ask them what name they would feel proud of and truly represents them. Still think Monuments is a slam dunk though, it’s just too perfect.

As someone who's lived in the DC area for over 3 decades and has had multiple interactions with Dan Snyder and other high ranking people of the team, I am glad the microscope is on them now. Snyder is a douchebag of the highest order!

Anyways, personally I hope the go with Warriors.