Fred Hiatt and the entire Washington Post editorial staff have proven on many occasions how badly they suck. If it's not war cheerleading and blatant falsehoods, they choose to editorialize on trivial bullshit. Hell, I'll even go so far as to say I was actually kind of conflicted when the Post endorsed Donna Edwards in the 4th district. It was great for Donna, but I really didn't want her being plied by THAT group.
The Washington Post is a local paper, but the people who work there obviously aren't. From these transplants, we're forced to endure constant articles about how horrible and awful the name of our football team is. It seems that certain people find the name "Redskins" to be offensive. I'm not going to argue whether the name is a slur or not. It's certainly not something I'm in any position to make a determination about. I'm not a Native American and I'm certainly not an expert on racial slurs. Hell, those change so quickly and frequently it's almost impossible to know what is a slur. I mean, a month ago I had no idea that "Macaca" was an ethnic slur.
But this issue just sticks in my craw. I'm not big fan of racial slurs; however, I am a big fan of the Washington Redskins. I have been my entire life. Some of my earliest memories are watching football games with my dad, who played in the Redskins band. Since before I can remember, I've known the words to the fight song (the first fight song for a pro football team) by heart. Since I was very young, I've wrapped myself in the burgundy and gold for all of football season (and most of the offseason, too). I've got enough Redskins clothing and gear to wear burgundy and gold from head to toe every single day. My friends fight over who's house we'll watch the games at because it's always a big deal. Hell, football season hasn't even really begun for me yet. That'll happen at 7:00 pm tonight, when the Redskins take on the Vikings.
I understand that the name may offend some people; however, I don't agree with calls to change the name. First of all, I don't want to have to buy new shirts, jerseys, bumper stickers, refrigerator magnets, camp table and chairs, beer glasses, or the myriad other Redskins stuff I've got. That would seriously hurt my ability to give to progressive causes. Not only that, but if they changed the team colors, they might not go very well with the furniture in my living room (very little goes with a burgundy couch, it seems). In addition, the fight song would have to change. Hell, that'd be a big loss for me personally. Last year I finally got my friends to join in the post touchdown sing-a-long, which has made the games even more fun.
But you know, I guess I can deal with all of that if it really hurts those people's feelings so much. I just have one request. As an Irish-American, I am offended and deeply hurt that the Notre Dame sports teams are referred to as the "Fighting Irish." I believe this perpetuates a hurtful stereotype that all Irish people are violent. Not only that, but their logo is a clearly stereotyped and racist image that caricatures features common to members of my ethnic group. Continuing to perpetuate this stereotype and image of Irish-Americans trivializes the very real discrimination and poor treatment that many of my relatives had to endure coming into this country. While I do not mean to compare my people's suffering to that of the Native Americans, I do believe if it is proper for Native Americans to clamor for Daniel Snyder to change the name of his football team it is also proper for me to demand this hurtful and injurious name be changed.
If I were a Native American, my first priority would not be the name of a football team. Yes, it's a big and visible thing. Yes, it would be a victory of sorts to force this heavily entrenched name out; however, the Native American community deals with insults far worse than that on a daily basis. In our schools, barely any of the story of the native peoples of this great land is told. Our schoolchildren leave school not knowing much about the largely successful ethnic cleansing campaign here in the United States.
They know nothing of the primitive biological warfare, where white settlers deliberately gave blankets and clothing used by smallpox sufferers to thin the numbers of Native Americans. I can't find a reliable estimate of the Native American population pre-colonization, but it is safe for me to say that we (as in the white colonists) killed millions of Native Americans. To me, the fact that young people are not taught this shameful history is more of an insult to the Native American people than any name could ever be.
I'm not trying to tell Native Americans which fights to pick. That's up to them. I just find it difficult to see what's so injurious about the name. I don't use that word to speak about anything other than my favorite football team. In my mind, there's a very real separation between Native Americans and the Washington Redskins. I'm not going to push some apologist nonsense like it's "meant to be an honor" because it's beyond that now. The Washington Redskins are the Washington Redskins because that was what the owner decided to change the name to in 1933. They are the most profitable sports franchise in the United States and they have broken the NFL season attendance record 7 years in a row. It's been said that the Redskins are so important to Washington that the actual pace of legislation on the floor of Congress can be conclusively proved to be related to a Redskins win or loss.
They're an important part of life here in the Washington area, and nobody here is ready for that kind of change. I can't stress how conflicted this makes me feel; however, there's no way I could advocate changing the name. That is, unless someone does something about that horribly stereotypical name "The Fighting Irish."