Wherein I Bitch About My City's Offensive Team Name
It's the start of football season, so you know what that means: DC's semi-annual navel gazing and guilt trip over our team's incredibly offensive name. Today we get a great editorial from Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise.
As you're drinking out of your Redskins mug Monday night while wearing your Redskins T-shirt -- supporting your make-believe Indians against those reviled Cowboys -- think long and hard about what a sweet way to "honor" a people that is. And, please, enough with this, "We're paying homage to the bravery and warrior mentality of the Native American." That's the same tired excuse Florida State University uses to continue the tradition of a student on horseback in full Hollywood regalia, chucking a flaming spear into the ground at midfield before football games, while thousands of people participate in the Tomahawk chop and the accompanying war chant also popular at Atlanta Braves games. The truth: The indigenous people of this continent were almost all hunters, gatherers, craftsmen and craftswomen before some of our ancestors nearly exterminated them and turned them into B-western caricatures.
I have been wanting to write about this issue since I got this job 18 months ago. The boss told me to hold out before I alienated most of the city, their pigmented Indian-face flags flopping along the Beltway on the way to FedEx Field on a September morning. All those liberal crusaders in the District and suburban Washington, working and writing for their own passionate causes but pleading ignorance on this one.
So I waited a year and observed, trying not be too judgmental, figuring I was just some knee-jerk newcomer who didn't get it.
I still don't get it.
Why, whether you're black or white, Hispanic or Asian, whether you're well off or getting by on public assistance, on the left or on the right, is most everyone okay with the term "Redskin?" Why am I still waiting for Daniel Snyder to understand that if his team's logo featured Mandingo tribesmen or orthodox Hasidics, it would be labeled racist and anti-Semitic?
Obviously, he really doesn't get it. Lemme spell it out for you Mike - DC resident know how offensive the name "Redskins" is, we really do. But guess what - WE JUST DON'T CARE! Hahahaha! Sorry Tonto, sucks to be you!!!
::weeps::
Seriously, that's the only conclusion I can reach after living here all these years - that DC residents are just assholes about the whole thing. I hear lots of arguments, usually along the lines of "yeah I know it's PROBABLY offensive, but it's too late to change the name & all the tshirts & baseball caps at this point" or "it's not really offensive, we're honoring the Indians!". Which, yeah right. The other big argument I hear is "stop being so PC, hippy"... but then when I start asking them how they'd feel about renaming the team "The Washington Blackies" or "DC Wetbacks", somehow they all have a different opinion.
The bottom line is, the Redskins aren't gonna change their name anytime soon, if ever. It's too expensive to change all the logos and whatnot, and bottom line there's no motivation because the name isn't offensive to the people in charge. It's embarrassing and incredibly fucked up, but it's the way it is. ::sighs::
As you're drinking out of your Redskins mug Monday night while wearing your Redskins T-shirt -- supporting your make-believe Indians against those reviled Cowboys -- think long and hard about what a sweet way to "honor" a people that is. And, please, enough with this, "We're paying homage to the bravery and warrior mentality of the Native American." That's the same tired excuse Florida State University uses to continue the tradition of a student on horseback in full Hollywood regalia, chucking a flaming spear into the ground at midfield before football games, while thousands of people participate in the Tomahawk chop and the accompanying war chant also popular at Atlanta Braves games. The truth: The indigenous people of this continent were almost all hunters, gatherers, craftsmen and craftswomen before some of our ancestors nearly exterminated them and turned them into B-western caricatures.
I have been wanting to write about this issue since I got this job 18 months ago. The boss told me to hold out before I alienated most of the city, their pigmented Indian-face flags flopping along the Beltway on the way to FedEx Field on a September morning. All those liberal crusaders in the District and suburban Washington, working and writing for their own passionate causes but pleading ignorance on this one.
So I waited a year and observed, trying not be too judgmental, figuring I was just some knee-jerk newcomer who didn't get it.
I still don't get it.
Why, whether you're black or white, Hispanic or Asian, whether you're well off or getting by on public assistance, on the left or on the right, is most everyone okay with the term "Redskin?" Why am I still waiting for Daniel Snyder to understand that if his team's logo featured Mandingo tribesmen or orthodox Hasidics, it would be labeled racist and anti-Semitic?
Obviously, he really doesn't get it. Lemme spell it out for you Mike - DC resident know how offensive the name "Redskins" is, we really do. But guess what - WE JUST DON'T CARE! Hahahaha! Sorry Tonto, sucks to be you!!!
::weeps::
Seriously, that's the only conclusion I can reach after living here all these years - that DC residents are just assholes about the whole thing. I hear lots of arguments, usually along the lines of "yeah I know it's PROBABLY offensive, but it's too late to change the name & all the tshirts & baseball caps at this point" or "it's not really offensive, we're honoring the Indians!". Which, yeah right. The other big argument I hear is "stop being so PC, hippy"... but then when I start asking them how they'd feel about renaming the team "The Washington Blackies" or "DC Wetbacks", somehow they all have a different opinion.
The bottom line is, the Redskins aren't gonna change their name anytime soon, if ever. It's too expensive to change all the logos and whatnot, and bottom line there's no motivation because the name isn't offensive to the people in charge. It's embarrassing and incredibly fucked up, but it's the way it is. ::sighs::