Should the Washington Redskins Change Their Team Name?

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Little by little....

Native American group urges broadcasters not to say “Redskins”
Posted by Michael David Smith on September 4, 2014, 9:34 AM EDT

Several NFL broadcasters have agreed not to say “Redskins” on the air anymore. A Native American group is urging hundreds of broadcasters to join the movement.

In a letter sent by the National Congress of American Indians and co-signed by dozens of civil rights and religious organizations, broadcasters are asked not to use the term, which “has been used to disparage Native Americans.”

“We have a growing list of news outlets and personalities against the name,” Joel Barkin, the Oneida Indian Nation’s spokesman, told the Washington Post. “Now we have people [such as] Lisa Salters from ESPN, Phil Simms and James Brown from CBS, and Tony Dungy from NBC. For people who are thoughtful and take an objective look at the issue, more than likely they’re saying, ‘Why should I use a name if I know it’s going to offend a group of people?’”

That’s a question more and more media outlets are asking. The New York Daily News just announced that it will no longer use the name, and that seems to be the direction that many members of the media are heading.
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Toppy Vann
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sj-roc wrote:Front page story of today's National Post:

Balfour Collegiate Redmen set to change their name … despite it having nothing to do with aboriginals

Excerpt:
A Regina high school is re-naming its “Redmen” sports teams, saying the name is no longer appropriate even though it refers only to the teams’ colours and no aboriginal imagery is used.

“Some people do associate anything related to ‘red’ or ‘Redmen’ as potentially derisive, as potentially racist, so the school wants to eliminate any of that,” said Regina Public Schools spokesperson Terry Lazarou. “I’m not going to say it’s political correctness … however, people don’t want to offend people. We’re responding to the general time and culture of the province right now, which wants everyone to feel like they belong, and if there’s a risk that someone feels a name is offensive, then we want to avoid that.”

The school’s decision comes after an informal school survey in which community members, including elder groups, expressed that the Redmen name was inappropriate. Balfour Collegiate will choose a new name and logo when the school year begins after input from parents and students, staff, alumni, and aboriginal elders, said Mr. Lazarou.
At the end of the article, Lazarou speculates re: whether the Ottawa Redblacks might be in for an eventual name change.
This is getting insanely ridiculous.

Red, Yellow (refers to Asians), Black, Brown - all could be deemed by someone as offensive.
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Toppy Vann wrote:
sj-roc wrote:Front page story of today's National Post:

Balfour Collegiate Redmen set to change their name … despite it having nothing to do with aboriginals

Excerpt:
A Regina high school is re-naming its “Redmen” sports teams, saying the name is no longer appropriate even though it refers only to the teams’ colours and no aboriginal imagery is used.

“Some people do associate anything related to ‘red’ or ‘Redmen’ as potentially derisive, as potentially racist, so the school wants to eliminate any of that,” said Regina Public Schools spokesperson Terry Lazarou. “I’m not going to say it’s political correctness … however, people don’t want to offend people. We’re responding to the general time and culture of the province right now, which wants everyone to feel like they belong, and if there’s a risk that someone feels a name is offensive, then we want to avoid that.”

The school’s decision comes after an informal school survey in which community members, including elder groups, expressed that the Redmen name was inappropriate. Balfour Collegiate will choose a new name and logo when the school year begins after input from parents and students, staff, alumni, and aboriginal elders, said Mr. Lazarou.
At the end of the article, Lazarou speculates re: whether the Ottawa Redblacks might be in for an eventual name change.
This is getting insanely ridiculous.

Red, Yellow (refers to Asians), Black, Brown - all could be deemed by someone as offensive.
Agree. Totally getting out of hand. Name Lions might be offensive to some animal activist. Let's call them BCFC like in soccer or perhaps BC Sporting.
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Toppy Vann
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I posted a long time ago that some native Americans have another list of names and these are names that misuse anything native and Seattle Seahawks are on that list.

The Redskins group are a rich leadership group of natives who make money off gambling but don't share it with their people (band) but blow it on museums, etc and even a huge donor to Obama. That band's members can't do anything about it.
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Broadcasters are using Washington team name a lot less
Posted by Mike Florio on September 18, 2014, 12:37 PM EDT

Plenty of fans, media, and league officials are longing for the good old days, when the NFL’s biggest controversy centered on the inevitability that the Washington franchise will, at some point, have a new name.

Until the name changes, plenty of broadcasters have tapped the brakes on using the name. Via Brad Gagnon of Awful Announcing, Deadspin has crunched the numbers.

Based on scripts of NFL broadcasts through the first two weeks of the each of the last two seasons, the team name was said 186 times and “Washington” was used 156 times in 2013. In 2014, the team name has been mentioned only 67 times. “Washington” has been used 169 times.

Last year, the team name was used 30 times more than “Washington.” This year, “Washington” has been used 102 times more than the team name.

It’s a trend that will continue, and it’s an issue that eventually will resurface, lingering until the name changes, and beyond.
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Simms prepares to call game involving team whose name he’ll try to not say
Posted by Mike Florio on September 24, 2014, 3:20 PM EDT

On Thursday night, CBS will televise the Giants-Washington game. It will mark the first time analyst Phil Simms handles a game involving a team whose name Simms says he won’t try to say due to the notion that the name refers to Native Americans in an offensive way.

“Will I refer to their nickname?” Simms tells Richard Deitsch of SI.com. “Look, I have already done it. It is a habit. I played for 15 years [for the Giants] and they were a bitter rival. There is a chance I could slip.”

Deitsch explains that Simms slipped several times last week, during the Buccaneers-Falcons game.

“I don’t want to be overwhelmed by it,” Simms said. “I had bad habits as a player. Bill Parcells used to tell me, ‘You throw a few too many picks, Simms.’ I’d say, ‘Well, Bill, I am going to try to fix that but I will not be fixing that overnight.’ Unfortunately this issue and the nickname, it has been out there for so long and on my radar and I know what I said, but it’s not the easiest habit to break. So if I refer to them by their nickname, I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ It could happen. In fact, it did slip this year and I did not know it. I had no idea. Now I could refer to the nickname I had for them as a player, but I don’t think that is appropriate for television.”

For those who are trying not to say the name (and plenty of broadcasters successfully aren’t), the effort introduces into the brain a filter that is hard to navigate — and that is hard to keep from popping up when getting ready to say the names of other teams, like Raiders and Jaguars and Steelers.

As to Simms, plenty of people will be counting how many times he says it on Thursday night. Ultimately, keeping an ear open regarding Simms’ commentary could end up being even more entertaining than keeping an eye on the game.
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Look I know bragging isn't a good thing but IMO, I have done an awesome job, in this thread and others not using the nickname of the Washington team. :wink:

I admire Simms for giving it a shot. It is tough. They've been called that for so long. Its like lots of things, just because its been done a certain way for a long time doesn't mean its okay. So, good on Simms for trying.

At the same time, I'm not going to be angry or upset if he or any other broadcast or any other fan just doesn't care about this issue. It matters enough to me, I'm going to make a change (have made and will continue, IMO :wink: ), thats all I am worried about.....
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notahomer wrote:Look I know bragging isn't a good thing but IMO, I have done an awesome job, in this thread and others not using the nickname of the Washington team. :wink:
Your solid efforts have been noticed, and you should receive something very nice as a result. You may, however, have to wait for your reward in Heaven. :wink:
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Well before the game Simms was failing miserably to not mention the name of the Washington team..... I watched a preview he'd filmed with his broadcast partner.... Simms used the nickname three or four times in a short span.....

Then I tuned into the game. I didn't make it a high priority. Simms did OKAY, IMO. I heard him use it only once BUT AS I SAID, I wasn't listening that closely. In fact, you could hear him delicately backtrack and even restate the same comment with the Washington team.

His partner, Jim Nantz, who probably made no such pronouncements, used both names interchangeably.
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Simms shouldn't say Giants as it gives little people an inferiority complex.

Watching the racist RedBlacks game now.
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Toppy Vann wrote:Simms shouldn't say Giants as it gives little people an inferiority complex.

Watching the racist RedBlacks game now.
the Ottawa nocolors did worse then the Washington noskins.
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FCC considers banning Washington name from broadcast TV
Posted by Mike Florio on September 30, 2014, 9:01 PM EDT

With the blackout rule now scuttled, the FCC can turn its attention to another NFL-related item of business: Preventing broadcast networks from using the name of the Washington NFL franchise.

On Tuesday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that the league will be considering a petition filed earlier this month alleging that the term is indecent.

“We will be dealing with that issue on the merits, and we will be responding accordingly,” Wheeler said, via the National Journal.

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf argued in the petition that the term constitutes a “racist, racially derogatory word.” A decision that the term is indecent would block over-the-air networks (CBS, FOX, CBS, and ABC) from using the term. The word could still be used in cable broadcasts.

But it wouldn’t matter. A ruling from the FCC that the term is indecent would force the NFL to change the name.

To be clear, acknowledgment that the issue will be addressed doesn’t mean that the FCC will decide to characterize the term as indecent. But it may, and that would be far more significant than today’s ruling that the little-used blackout rule no longer can be enforced by the NFL against the networks.
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South Pender wrote:FCC considers banning Washington name from broadcast TV
Posted by Mike Florio on September 30, 2014, 9:01 PM EDT

With the blackout rule now scuttled, the FCC can turn its attention to another NFL-related item of business: Preventing broadcast networks from using the name of the Washington NFL franchise.

On Tuesday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that the league will be considering a petition filed earlier this month alleging that the term is indecent.

“We will be dealing with that issue on the merits, and we will be responding accordingly,” Wheeler said, via the National Journal.

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf argued in the petition that the term constitutes a “racist, racially derogatory word.” A decision that the term is indecent would block over-the-air networks (CBS, FOX, CBS, and ABC) from using the term. The word could still be used in cable broadcasts.

But it wouldn’t matter. A ruling from the FCC that the term is indecent would force the NFL to change the name.

To be clear, acknowledgment that the issue will be addressed doesn’t mean that the FCC will decide to characterize the term as indecent. But it may, and that would be far more significant than today’s ruling that the little-used blackout rule no longer can be enforced by the NFL against the networks.
I'd prefer if the US Congress banned Guantanamo Bay and illegal foreign wars over banning the use of REDskins names or maybe even the REDBLACKS.

A Managing Director who built up two successful Silicon firms left for Asia when he found that the Board meetings had gone insanely to about 80% legal issues and not enough on the business and when he came home to his housekeeper in LA hanging up from the phone after successfully completing another house flip for big profits. His error was not letting her flip his as he's still under water in LA housing market from his buy price.

Is this a sign of a society gone crazy.

Jobless economic recoveries. Capital flight from the USA overseas and only focus for business is on shareholder value not their people.
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Murphy says Washington name has been discussed “at the league level”
Posted by Mike Florio on October 1, 2014, 2:00 PM EDT

Supplanted of late by other controversies, the debate regarding the Washington name lingers. On Tuesday, Packers CEO Mark Murphy acknowledged that the debate also has migrated to the upper reaches of the NFL.

“There have been discussions at the league level,” Murphy said Tuesday at Marquette Law School, via Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We have had some discussions at owners’ meetings. Dan [Snyder] has made presentations. Quite honestly, I think with all the issues we are facing, with domestic violence and concussions, it’s probably not at the top of the list.”

He’s right, but eventually it will be.

Murphy added that he’s “very sensitive” to the subject, given Green Bay’s proximity to the Oneida Nation. Murphy pointed out that, while serving as Athletic Director at Colgate, he presided over the change of the team’s nickname from the Red Raiders to the Raiders.
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I wonder whether simply not using the "Redskins" is the most effective way to get across one's message that the word isn't acceptable. Consider the average person with no emotional stake in the issue, who would need to be won over in shifting public opinion. If the word is simply absent from commentary on the team then I don't think this carries much resonance with this sort of person. If the word is not being used, it probably wouldn't stick with the average viewer any more than if commentators refused to say the word "elevator" from now on. Simply omitting to use the word is what I would call a passive strategy.

Some media people have already indicated they will no longer use the word. But I wonder, if another sharper tactic might be more effective. What if these people started actively using the phrase "R-words" in their coverage? I think this would stick more with the audience. People would be forced to consider, "Wait, why is he saying 'R-words' instead of 'Redskins'?", rather than not have it enter their consciousness at all that the latter word isn't being used. It would help underscore the argument that the word isn't acceptable anymore, that you have to self-censor — "go 'N-word' on it", if you will — just so you can discuss the team. I think this could be more effective in stigmatising the word by taking this more active approach. Just passively omitting to use a word doesn't make it offensive. But if you're using a replacement term like "R-word" in a context in which it would have once been commonplace to use the word deemed more offensive, isn't this making the point more strongly? "RGIII is looking to get Washington back into the playoff race." "RGIII is looking to get the R-words back into the playoff race." Which of these sends a stronger message about the word 'Redskins'?

Or, another example, to consider: in the last CFL game you watched, can you tell me, quickly off the top of your head, whether the commentators referred to either or both teams by their home location or their nickname more often? You probably don't remember. But if we suddenly heard Toronto's team being referred to as "the A-words", surely this would stir some reaction, wouldn't it? Or least more than if they only used "Toronto" exclusively?
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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