Quote:
Originally Posted by mlmdub130
For me I had thought of the name as nothing more than a name. Much like the Braves, Chiefs, Indians, Seminoles and so on. And yes in a way I think in some way naming a team after a certain group shows respect. Look at the Seminoles for example, I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure everything they do is in conjunction with the Seminole tribe. They have a guy in war paint come on the field riding a horse and throw a spear to start the games. No one seems to lose any sleep over that.
After hearing Amanda Blackhorse speak I now understand more of where she is coming from. I feel that she, and as a whole the group she represents, don't whole heartily deep down think Redskins is anywhere close to the n word. I get the impression that what molded her mind was actually seeing belligerent fans dressed in tacky Indian head dresses and gear. Which is something I can actually understand. Seeing someone stumbling through a parking lot wasted dressed up as an Indian Chief would be very disturbing to a Native American.
Given all that I can understand why a portion of the native community would want the Redskins and all other Native American mascots removed. But I don't think I will ever buy into the word Redskin being anywhere close to equal with the n word. A word that if I even typed it out I would probably get back lash. That word has so much hate behind it and was meant as hateful word to lessen someone. I would hate to give the word Redskin that power.
So my wishful thinking would be to have more education about Natives and the everyday situations that they face. Maybe a little education could help teach people to respect the Native American culture instead if making it disappear from popular culture. Because if we keep going down this uber PC road where does it stop? Say we rename the team the Warriors, which seems to be leading the clubhouse at the moment. What happens in another 15 years when people look at war in a much different light. Could Warriors not even be PC enough for the long haul?
At the end of the day I'm a Redskins fan, and a football fan. If they change the name I'll still follow the team, but I really don't think it will ever be the same. I really hope somehow we can keep the name, and both sides can be happy, but as it seems with everything else in the world these days, doesn't look like there's much middle ground in this debate.
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Good post. The caricatures of a drunken bro wearing head dresses with a tomahawk in one hand and a beer in the other would rankle most people's feathers.
I understand your fear of a slippery slope. I just don't think this particular word is something that became offensive all of a sudden. The discussion is reaching an apex now, but there's been at least some dissidence for quite some time.