Crothian said:
I don't hear the word redskin being used today like the words you mentioned. So, I think it is different and an analogy using a racist term that has fallen out of use would be more fitting.
Really?
I mean, where I live, I don't hear the N-word being dropped except by black people using it in conversations with each other. To me, the N-word has fallen out of use except as a term of casual friendly insult between African-American men. Perhaps I should lobby for that as the new name for the Redskins, then.
Dear White Guys: Let me say this in the nicest possible way, because I know it may come as a shock:
It's not about you.
It doesn't
matter whether the term offends you. It doesn't
matter whether you think that the term is racist. If the meanest cultural insult you've ever had hurled your way is that you're a geeky gamer, you are not qualified to make judgments about the relative degrees of racism in a specific statement.
If the tribes are bringing up a case, it's because the tribes are unhappy about it, presumably because they are offended by it. Or possibly because they've become corrupt and greedy and want a payoff, but you know? I'm willing to let that get settled in court, and I'm willing to let the folks who were the victims of a largely successful attempt at genocide at least have their day in court, rather than sit at my keyboard and use my white male fingers to type about how I'm not offended by it, and therefore it shouldn't be changed.
(Note: Married to a nice Cheyenne woman.)
Vig, to answer your original question: Got me. I see two options:
1) Pick a non-racial name. It's easy enough. It's been done before. The bitter old white guys who think it's about heritage and tradition and not racial stereotypes will recover.
2) Pick an Indian term with the input of a tribal committee (one composed of members of several tribes, or several tribes from around the DC area, or whatever). My limited experience with tribal committees has been less than overwhelmingly positive, but if they got signoff from that committee, they'd have it on the books. They'd have done their due diligence, and whenever anyone brought it up, they could say, "Well, we cleared it with this committee, and they're genuine Indians who were appointed by the tribes to give us the okay."
For the record, my wife (and her Dad) are sort of torn. They hate the name, because in their minds it IS racist (and her father DOES use it the way African-Americans use the N-word, sort of), but if they're stuck with it, they figure that they might as well support the team just on cultural principle. "I wish they'd change it, but until they do, I might as well root for the team."
(They also are less irked by the Redskins than the Chiefs or the Braves or the Indians, if I remember this right, because the Redskins don't have as many insulting fake-Indian shtick-things going -- the tomahawk chop or whatever it is.)
Note: No argument that the "We want it changed, but we root for them" thing is dysfunctional. When your culture gets largely destroyed and the little bit that remains gets either insulted or romanticized, a bit of dysfunction is going to creep into the picture. My wife's family is going through some other stuff that really brings that home right now.
