Mascot Issue (AGAIN)

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

If a minority group expresses offense at a comment it is incredibly insensitive for someone outside of the group to question their right to be offended.

I have not heard anyone make that argument. Nobody questions anyone's right to be offended. I question the right that any offended person is entitled to force the offender to stop the offensive behavior.

Originally Posted by djnemo65

To say, maybe people with funny hats are offended by the patriots or whatever is beyond stupid, because that's not a minority group, and because they aren't offended anyway.

So only minority groups can be offended?

Originally Posted by djnemo65

...to the second argument, it very well may be that it is only a tiny minority of Native Americans offended by the term Redskins. But why then the passion about this issue? Why not say, based on the info I have this name is not really deemed that offensive, and if I find out otherwise then maybe we should change it?

Why the passion? You can't fathom the reason why some people would be upset at the idea that someone has to alter their identity because another person or group doesn't like it?

Who should be the authority on this issue? Should there be a law? Should government force the Redskins to change their name?

Let me give you another example: I used to work at B. Dalton Booksellers about 12 years ago. The store was divided into fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, history, etc. We also had a section titled "African American Interest". It contained books written by Maya Angelou, books about Martin Luther King, that sort of thing. One day a black woman came to me and said she was "offended" at how that particular section of the store was labelled.

Now, because a person claimed to be offended, does the store instantly have the obligation to change it because someone took offense? Does one person or group that claims to be offended become King and wave a magic wand to make what they find offensive go away? What gives them that right? What about the rights of the people to label it the way they want? What about Dan Snyder and the team he owns? Does he lose his property rights because a group, no matter how large or small, doesn't like something about it?