Eskimos: change your name

[Toppy Vann]

McGill's former name was based on their uniform colour.

Names like the SFU Clansmen, Redmen - are awkward for me as I'd like to see the male designations gone from them as it always is a challenge when it comes to the women's teams on campuses.

SFU is undergoing pressure on Clan I think as it reminds some of the Klan. I know when I was an undergrad at SFU and we had three male African Americans up from San Francisco along with one Caucasian they were taken aback to play for the CLAN.

My personal views are simple:

> I believe in political correctness (no racist, sexist, shaming for looks etc ) as it just makes for a better world.

> the downside of this is our current tendency to vastly over reacting to anything that potentially could be considered offensive to anyone or cultural misappropriation.

[Toppy Vann]

ESKIMOS is a name that to me connotes resilience, toughness, weather the storm - all kind of weather - I don't see a person as a mascot and never have.

Bombers - the modern connotation of that word is not bombs killing innocents but things like F-bombs, attack . My dad was in the RCAF training pilots in WW2 and that name like the Jets is something they were proud of.

Winnipeg Jets - change your name - reminds me of a jet killing someone lol.... or maybe it's a plane crash so you can't call your team the 737s even if Boeing sponsors you.

Panthers, Lions, Tigers, Ticats, Stampeders, Roughriders, Mustangs - remind me of someone dying at the hands of these fine animals.
RedBlacks - i think red people and black people ...

Thunderbirds, Seahawks - all are cultural appropriations.

Teams can't even just use colours anymore - Blues (depression) Yellow (Asian) Blacks, Reds, Browns, Purple (victims of assault).

Green, Pink, Mauve, Orange (oops - the Orangemen in Ireland might be an issue)

What' s left??? lol

[TheLionKing]

What' s left??? lol

They could go the way of soccer and call themselves FC like Edmonton FC (football club), Simon Fraser FC, Toronto FC etc. etc. For some reason soccer clubs always like to call themselves FC

[Sir Purrcival]

Playing Devils advocate.

Could we see a time when RedBlacks is offensive to someone? There are obvious connections to two groups there.

[Dusty]

Redblacks is offensive to me.... a misspelt reference to Rod Black, who I cannot stand to listen to and put on mute whenever he is broadcasting. They should change it to Ottawa Rivers..... <smile>...

[Sir Purrcival]

LOL. The Ottawa RodBlacks. Logo is a crowd of people holding a remote with the mute button pushed.

[David]

LOL. The Ottawa RodBlacks. Logo is a crowd of people holding a remote with the mute button pushed.

My alternate logo idea for the Nashville Predators is a bunch of balding 40-year old men wearing nothing but trenchcoats and sinister smiles.


DH

[Sir Purrcival]

Oh boy, that just changed my whole perspective on the Victoria Cougars.

[Robbie]

Because of Black Lives Matter and the crisis that's happening in America right now, the Washington Redskins name change has revived yet again. And if the nickname does change, I wonder if it will cause a chain reaction to change all sports team names related to people groups.

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In 2001 and again in 2003, Georgia decided to change their state flag because they didn't like the Confederate Battle Flag that was incorporated while Mississippi decided to keep theirs. Now, Mississippi has retired their latest flag as well:


For those who are huge fans of the Dukes of Hazzard show, you may have had a toy or model car of the General Lee. I suppose toy manufacturers won't make such toys of that car anymore given its design on the roof.

Will Canada change any flags soon? If for some reason someday UK does something very bad, will the 3 Canadian provincial flags which incorporate the British Union Jack get a redesign as well?

[maxlion]

It's long overdue. Only one reason to use racially divisive names in this era: you are racist. Edmonton CFL team is national embarrassment.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/edmo ... -1.5593518

[maxlion]

Not a great image for a league that wants to celebrate diversity and attract a younger generation of fans:

https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/nfl-re ... -teen-says

It’s a swear word, teen says

Akutaq said she considers Edmonton’s team name a swear word.

Many believe the term came from a negative Algonquian term meaning “eaters of raw meat.”

It was also used by the Canadian government in connection with policies that aimed to wipe out Inuit culture and communities.

“There’s a lot of bad history behind it, like residential schools and dog slaughters and taking their kids away and changing their whole way of life,” Akutaq said.

“It’s very racist,” she said. “I would really love it if they would change their name.”

[Sir Purrcival]

Yeah, I always get bothered when I see the name Edmonton.

On a more serious note, there is almost nothing out there by way of a name referencing people that someone can't turn into some form of derogatory meaning. Probably for the best to change it in the long run just because there is little to be gained from the ongoing hard feelings that such controversies seem to engender. it is kind of ironic that one aboriginal group is protesting a name given them by another aboriginal group and used by a third cultural group.

[ZLions]

For those who are unaware: the term "eskimo" was initially used by non-native colonizers to refer to Indigenous peoples because the colonizers thought that the term "eskimo" meant "eater of raw meat," which connoted barbarism and violence.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... er%20terms.

I've have heard before that Inuit people consider the term "eskimo" demeaning; similar to the n word with black people. I agree with maxlion, it's time for the Eskimos to change their name. Maybe the Edmonton Polar Bears or something, lol.

[BC 1988]

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local- ... -open-mind

The latest in the saga of the CFL Edmonton team name:

The Edmonton Eskimos said Wednesday it will keep an “open mind” to changing its name after a major sponsor threatened to pull support if the Canadian Football League team didn’t follow through.

Home and car insurance company Belairdirect, which has sponsored the team for several years, joined in the call for a change to the Eskimo moniker following backlash on social media after the team rebuffed renewed calls to drop a name critics say is racist.

[David]

I think the Eskimos organization had planned to mostly market the "EE" mark, make use of the term "One Empire," while keeping the heritage brand "Eskimos" but just downplay it. However, the whispers for change are too loud now. When sponsors pull out and/or paying customers threaten to not renew, it's over.

I'd now say there's a 70% - 80% chance of this happening within the next 12 months.


DH