THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Dan Snyder
The same day that Hillary Clinton became the latest prominent politician to call for a change to the name of Washington’s professional football team, news broke of a new web site that seeks to make the case for keeping it. RedskinsFacts.com presents itself as a grassroots effort from “Redskins Alumni” to defend the name from critics by presenting facts that support the case the team has made for maintaining the name the franchise has used since 1933. Slate was quick to note that the web site appears not to be an organic, grassroots project but an astroturfed public relations campaign backed by D.C. crisis communications firm Burson-Marsteller. Any preliminary idea that the franchise isn’t playing a role in the site seemed quickly dispelled Wednesday when the RedskinsFacts.com logo popped up on backdrops during interviews with coaches and players at the team’s training camp.
It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to understand which way the wind is blowing for Dan Snyder…and it’s not at his back. I understand his long love affair with the Washington Redskins and how buying the team was the culmination of a lifelong dream. Unfortunately, his team’s nickname was put forth in the 1930s by the team’s original owner (and unapologetic racist), George Preston Marshall. Anyone familiar with the team’s origins and early history understands the term “Redskins” was never meant, as Marshall contended, to honor one of the team’s first coaches, William Henry ‘Lone Star’ Dietz. Dietz, who claimed Native American heritage primarily to avoid the WWI draft, was born to German parents.
Marshall’s dissembling about the nickname’s origins started a dishonest conversation that’s continued throughout the years up to Snyder, the team’s current owner. Having gone on record saying that he would NEVER under ANY circumstances change the team’s name, Snyder seems to have painted himself into a corner. No reasonable person could deny the team’s nickname is anything but racist and disparaging to Native Americans, who’ve protested for years in an effort to convince the NFL to force a name change (Native Americans protested at the 1992 Super Bowl when I was still living in Minneapolis). Despite that, Snyder has spared no effort, propaganda, or money to mislead Americans into believing that “Redskins” is a term of endearment, a nickname that stands for courage and bravery.
Snyder could assume the moral high ground do the right thing by changing the team’s nickname. In so doing, he could demonstrate that his football team is something that can appeal to all people regardless of heritage, and that racism has no place in America’s favorite pastime. Instead, he’s wasting a lot of time, effort, and money to perpetuate something he’s smart enough to recognize isn’t true.
Dan Snyder may or may not be an unreconstructed and unapologetic racist…but his refusal to do anything but dig his heels in is a public relations nightmare, both for him and the NFL.
When it comes to its current usage, dictionary definitions are virtually unanimous that it is no longer and “entirely benign” term. Over time, the Oxford American dictionary says, “redskin lost its neutral, accurate descriptive sense and became a term of disparagement.” It now calls it “dated” and “offensive.” Merriam Webster identified the term as “often contemptuous” as early as its 1898 Collegiate version. Today, it says the word is “usually offensive.”
Imagine, if you will, a professional sports league in which the teams have nicknames like “Niggers,” “Hebes,” “Chinks,” “Wetbacks,” and “Ragheads.” How long would it be before the hue and cry against such obvious, almost tangible racism would be heard from sea to shining sea? Such a league would never get off the ground, nor should it…yet the NFL continues to tolerate “Redskins” as a legitimate team nickname. Even Commissioner Roger Goodell is heavily invested in the propaganda that “Redskins” is a name symbolizing strength, bravery, and courage.
No American with even the most cursory knowledge of America’s racial history could argue that Daniel Snyder isn’t on the wrong side of that history. He could do the right thing, announce that he recognizes there’s no place for racism in the NFL, and get out ahead of the parade. By digging his feet in, he’s costing himself credibility and (most significantly) money. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently ruled the name “Redskins” to be derogatory and thus ineligible for protection under trademark law. That ruling alone stands to cost Snyder millions in revenue from anything bearing the team’s logo, because without the legal protecting provided by a trademark, anyone can legally sell team-branded merchandise.
The time will come when Snyder will be forced to change his team’s name. It may not be this year or next, but enough pressure will eventually be brought to bear to force his hand. One could be forgiven for believing that someone as ostensibly intelligent as Snyder would make lemonades out of lemons by admitting to the obvious and getting out in front of the process. He has a golden opportunity to create a lot of positive buzz around his team- and make a lot of money by doing so. Inexplicably, he refuses to budge.
Perhaps Snyder has spent too long communing with the ghost of George Preston Marshall, but he’s a smart guy doing a really, truly, unbelievably stupid thing. For the sake of D.C.’s football fans, I hope he’ll remove his anterior from his posterior and do the right thing…which is the only option he really has.
Or he can dither, delay, and fiddle until public outrage forces his hand.
