Never Say Never: Will Dan Snyder Be Forced to Rename the Washington Redskins?
BYTY SCHALTER
atrick McDermott/Getty Images
"NEVER,"Washington RedskinsownerDan SnydertoldUSA Today."It's that simple." With that statement, Snyder tried to shut the door on 50 years of debate about hisNFL franchise's name and logo.
Apparently, 40 years of protests and lawsuits from Native American groups haven't gotten through to Snyder.
Sports Illustrated's Peter King, arguably the most influential sportswriter on Earth, stopped using the name—as didUSA Today'sChristine Brennan, theentire Slate website, and many other media members.
Snyder hasn't heard their silence.
Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Grayhas questioned the name, the District of Columbia council has considered condemning it, and abipartisan group of the U.S Congressformally appealed to Snyder's humanity.
Snyder remains unmoved.
He has plugged his ears and closed his eyes to over 200 years of relocation, subjugation and eradication of people who look like his team's logo by people who look like him.
He does not want to change the name, so he thinks it will never change.
It's easy to imagine a young Snyder playing football with his friends. His ball, his rules—and if they don't like it, he'll take his ball and go home.
Is the Washington NFL franchise really Snyder's ball to do with as he pleases? More importantly, what if all his friends quit first?
Peter King was just named editor-in-chief of a new SI website,The MMQB.Built around his brand of football analysis, The MMQB is intended to set standards for football coverage—and King decided he "can do his job without using"the Redskins name.
He's not requiring all MMQB writers to follow his lead, but many—and many who read his work— surely will.
ESPN's Bill Simmons, editor-in-chief of theGrantlandsports-and-culture website, has taken tocalling the team the "Washington D.C.'s."
Brennan, who covered the team as a beat writer forThe Washington Post, penned a beautiful explanation of whyshe will no longer usethe word she's casually dropped "probably 10,000" times.
TheWashington City Paper, whoseexhaustive 2010 list of Snyder's public and private money grabs and ego trips caused an enraged Snyder to file a baseless libel suit,switched from "Redskins" to "Pigskins"last year.
This is far from a complete list of columnists, analysts, reporters, bloggers and writers who've decided to stop using the name—a list which seems to get longer every day. As more and more influential media members either stop using the name or argue that it's time the Redskins do so, more and more Americans will think harder about the issue.
A recent Associated Press-GfK poll showed79 percent of Americansdon't think the Redskins should change their name. That's hardly a national outcry for change, but it's a 10 percent drop froma 1992 pollconducted by ABC andThe Washington Post.
Racism and the Word "Redskin"
Just how offensive is the word "redskin?"
It's a difficult question to answer.Some ascribe the use of word "redskin" or "red man" to the extensive body painting and tattooing several tribes practiced—the Lenape, most famously.
The Lenape, now the Delaware, were forced off their land by the sons of original Pennsylvania governor William Penn. Per Encyclopaedia Britannica,theWalking Purchase,which granted the Pennsylvania colony the Delaware tribal land, was a "swindle." Eventually, the Delaware were forced to abandon their lands and move to Ohio.
During the so-called French and Indian War, the Ohio Delawares who sided with the British moved toDetroitand then eventually to Ontario, Canada, where there are two small reservations today. Those who sided with the Americans were forced into Indiana, then Missouri, then Kansas and finally Oklahomaby alternating wars and treaties.
In 1979, the U.S. government stopped recognizing the dwindling Delawares as a tribe at all. The tribe whose customs may have given us the terms "redskin" were alternately slaughtered and lawyered across the country and then right out of existence.
Only after a series of lawsuits were the Delaware againfederally recognized as a tribein 2009. They then sued the state of Pennsylvania for the roughly 300 acres of the land they were defrauded of in the Walking Purchase so they could build a casino there.
They lost.
For many Native Americans, including several major Native American tribes and councils, the word "redskin" will always be associated with the barbaric practice of scalping.
On June 12, 1755, Massachusetts Governor William Shirley instituted ascalp bounty system, paying top dollar for the scalps and hair of Native Americans. In this way, the mass slaughter of Native Americans was incentivized.
It's no wonder people of Native American descent are offended by the term "redskin," as it evokes the blood-soaked skin of their ancestors. That said, there's little evidence of what "redskin" historically refers to.
As Ives Goddard, Senior Linguist in theDepartment of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, explains in an exhaustively researched paper, indigenous peoples begancalling themselves redto contrast themselves with white Europeans:
“The wordredskinreflects a genuine Native American idiom that was used in several languages, where it grew out of an earlier established and more widespread use of "red" and "white" as racial labels. This terminology was developed by Native Americans to label categories of the new ethnic and political reality they confronted with the coming of the Europeans”.
Goddard writes that the English and French realized Native Americans were calling themselves "red" and "redskins" in the mid-1700s, but the English word "redskin" wasn't publicly used until a speech by President James Madison in 1807, welcoming tribal leaders from across America to the White House.
If the origin is Native American and benign, does that mean "redskin" isn't racist?
For decades, "redskin" has been the worst epithet that can be used against a Native American. Regardless of the word's origins, there's no doubt that countless Native Americans have personally experienced it as a slur, a curse and a word of hate.
AsIndian Country Today'sSuzan Shown Harjowrote in 2005, "Only a few wounding words carry pain so severe they have not been dulled by time. 'Redskins' is such a word for most Native people. Once you've been stung by that word you never, ever forget it or the venom of each modifier, most commonly 'dirty,' 'lazy,' and 'stupid.'"
Harjo was the lead plaintiff inHarjo et al v. Pro-Football, Inc.,the trademark lawsuit against the Redskins. "Redskin" became a vile epithet because racists used it that way—and many Native Americans felt the hate behind it.
The Opposition to the Opposition
No culture is a monolith. It's just as dehumanizing to say Native Americans are offended by the Redskins name as it is to use stereotypical depictions of Native Americans as comedic props in cartoons. If we're recognizing the humanity of Native American history and suffering, we have to recognize their individual humanity.
Many Native Americansaren'toffended by the name, and some even embrace it.
Paul Woody of theRichmond Times-Dispatchspoke withG. Anne Richardson, chief of Virginia’s Rappahannock tribe, about the name. According to Woody, she "had to stifle a laugh" when he asked her about the nickname.
“We’re more worried about our kids being educated, our people housed, elder care and the survival of our culture," Richardson said. "We'vebeen in that survival mode for 400 years. We’re not worried about how some ball team is named.”
Robert Green, a retired chief of the Virginia-based Patawomeck tribe, went on SiriusXM NFL Radio toexplain the other side of the coin."I'vebeen a Redskins fan for years," Green said, "and to be honest with you, I would be offended if they did change it."
For many Native Americans, including the family of a sick childvisited by former Redskins great Joe Theismann, having NFL greats bear symbols of their culture really is an honor. Theismann told that story totheArgus Leader(viaThe Washington Post), explaining that he felt pride in the Redskins name and that he tried to honor the Native American people when he wore the uniform.
"I felt like I was representing more than the Washington Redskins," Theismann said,
"Iwas representing the great Native American nations that exist in this country."
No matter how long the debate goes on, there will be people of Native American descent who are against the name and those who are for it—just as there are, and will be, for every other race.
How can we weigh all the differing opinions?