Thankfully, racism is under attack among decent and honorable people these days…except in the National Football League, where it’s been institutionalized and traditionalized for years. The (finally) emerging debate over the Washington Redskins nickname is long overdue and a conversation we shouldn’t have to have. We should have long ago demanded the NFL force Dan Snyder’s play toy to find a nickname that isn’t a racist slur. The NFL, normally so conscious of being bland enough to appeal to every one, accepts a team with a racially offensive nickname and logo because of…well, tradition, don’tchaknow? Then again, this is the same league that soft-pedaled their concussion problem until the trail of broken bodies could no longer be swept under the rug.
Team owner Dan Snyder has gone out of his way to make it clear that as long as he owns the Redskins, the team will NEVER change its name. His argument centers on tradition, history, and his perception that not enough people are offended by the name to warrant changing it. This raises the obvious question of how many people need to be offended…and do those offended (among them Native Americans) count as “real” people? American tradition and history is rife with examples of racism and oppression (Uh…slavery?). My question is why we need to perpetuate and glorify that on autumn Sunday afternoons. Why must we persist tolerating and condoning things like this that divide us along racial lines? Aren’t we supposed to be better than that?
My argument is pretty simple: What if a major American sports league featured franchises like the Los Angeles Wetbacks? The Detroit Niggers? The Miami Spics? The New York Hebes? The Texas Teabaggers? The public outcry and demand for change would be loud and justifiable, but somehow the Redskins nickname doesn’t offend enough people (i.e- White Americans) to be considered a problem. It’s offensive enough that a few newspapers, including The Oregonian refuse to use “Redskins” in articles referencing Washington’s NFL team. If newspapers get it, then what could possibly be so difficult for Dan Snyder or Commissioner Roger Goodell to understand? “Redskins” is a racial slur in the same way “nigger” and “spic” are. Any attempt to deny it based on “history” or “tradition” is merely condoning racism. It’s pretty simple, really. Racism is wrong. It’s abhorrent. Most of all, it shouldn’t be tolerated on the basis of “history” or “tradition.”
Those who deny continue to deny the racism inherent in “Redskins” are too blind and insensitive to empathize with Native Americans who’ve asked for years that the NFL not feature a team whose nickname denigrates their people and their culture. It’s long past time that Commissioner Goodell did the right and demand that Dan Snyder find a new nickname for his team.
America’s most popular sport shouldn’t stand for racism. Period. If that isn’t crystal clear and understandable, I don’t know what would be.
