Advancement Project

September 23, 2009

The Washington Redskins Should Drop the Offensive Name

The Washington Redskins shouldn’t wait to see whether the Supreme Court will allow the organization to hold on to the offensive Redskins moniker that’s a slur to some Native Americans. They should simply find a sense of ethics and change the name.

A group of Native Americans first challenged the team’s trademark of the name in 1992, arguing that it was an offensive stereotype and that the team’s owners should not have a right to have trademarked the name. The group won over the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in 1999, according to the Washington Post. But they lost the case in U.S. District Court in 2003 and in an appeals court in 2005.

The courts have ruled, in part, that the plaintiffs waited too long from the time they determined the name was offensive to challenge it in court. The plaintiffs’ attorneys disagree.

Whether it’s right or wrong for the team to use that name has nothing to do with how long it took for someone to take the matter to court. If decency means anything the name’s got to go. This is not the era of your granddaddy’s Redskins. Things have changed a lot since 1933 when the Boston Braves became the Boston Redskins, four years before the team moved to Washington to become the Washington Redskins.

That was an era when it was common to see Black stereotypes gracing the covers of all types of products, the Black mammy figurines with large red lips and bug eyes and images of Uncle Ben, the old gentle stereotype of Black men—stereotypes meant to portray African Americans as nonthreatening, humble servants of their White superiors. As you would expect African Americans are glad those days are pretty much gone. Given this history, I understand why a group of Native Americans would object to the mass marketing of an imposed stereotype about their people. ‘Redskin’ is a racial descriptor for Native Americans which reflects the obsession European colonists had with color classifications to describe groups of people in the U.S. It’s a pejorative term that was used often in Westerns–the old Cowboy and Indians movies—and has fallen into disuse because it was so insulting. But old habits obviously die hard.

The NFL team claims that the name honors Native Americans—which is utterly ridiculous. If you want to honor Native Americans, then change the name. As an African American, I would not feel honored by a team named the Blackskins, the Watusis, or the African Warriors.

If the team’s owners gave this matter any real thought, they’d realize that committing virtual genocide against a group of people, seizing their land and seeking to destroy they culture-as was done by the majority culture in America—does not put that group in a position to honor Native Americans by appropriating their names or stereotyping them.

In fact, it’s rather ironic that a nation that meted out extreme violence against Native Americans can somehow view Native Americans as the wild ones. Nevertheless, the qualities of being wild, primal and uncivilized are stereotyped perceptions of Native Americans that still permeate mainstream American culture, which the team’s owners have bought into. Instead, of helping to rid the culture of the stereotype, the football franchise is simply reinforcing it. These stereotypes are also damaging to White Americans because they foster a sense of superiority by denigrating an entire group of People of Color.

High school districts throughout the country have been getting rid of Indian mascots and names because they realize they are offensive to Native Americans. So surely, the team’s owners get why the name upsets some people. Perhaps, the greenbacks to be earned from the marketing of the name and logo have gotten in the way of clear thinking. The team’s not alone, it’s among a number of professional sports teams, including the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves– whose fans are known for their offensive tomahawk chop–that need to put these stereotypes behind them.

Rushing, is the writer-editor of Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization that advocates for racial justice.