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What's In A Nickname? Do team nicknames honor or dishonor Native Americans?
espn.go.com ^ | Rick Reilly

Posted on 09/20/2013 7:38:50 AM PDT by GSWarrior

I guess this is where I'm supposed to fall in line and do what every other American sports writer is doing. I'm supposed to swear I won't ever write the words "Washington Redskins" anymore because it's racist and offensive and a slap in the face to all Native Americans who ever lived. Maybe it is.

I just don't quite know how to tell my father-in-law, a Blackfeet Indian. He owns a steak restaurant on the reservation near Browning, Mont. He has a hard time seeing the slap-in-the-face part.

"The whole issue is so silly to me," says Bob Burns, my wife's father and a bundle holder in the Blackfeet tribe. "The name just doesn't bother me much. It's an issue that shouldn't be an issue, not with all the problems we've got in this country."

And I definitely don't know how I'll tell the athletes at Wellpinit (Wash.) High School -- where the student body is 91.2 percent Native American -- that the "Redskins" name they wear proudly across their chests is insulting them. Because they have no idea.

(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: football; nativeamericans; redskins
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I enjoy Rick Reilly columns.
1 posted on 09/20/2013 7:38:50 AM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: GSWarrior

I honestly dunno.....you know, a real ‘journalist’ would research this conundrum......one place he/she might start is to go survey what our time-honored and reverent Native Americans (or whatever the hell they call themselves) name their effing casinos....how about that for starters? Huh?


2 posted on 09/20/2013 7:42:18 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: GSWarrior

Who names a team after something the don’t like and don’t respect and whose noble qualities they don’t want to emulate?

Who? Only a yoghurt.


3 posted on 09/20/2013 7:44:04 AM PDT by null and void (I'm betting on an Obama Trifecta: A Nobel Peace Prize, an Impeachment, AND a War Crimes Trial...)
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To: GSWarrior
What's In A Nickname? Do team nicknames honor or dishonor Native Americans?

Nicknames?

So, for example.. if "Redskins" is the team's nickname.. what is their REAL name?

4 posted on 09/20/2013 7:44:45 AM PDT by humblegunner
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To: GSWarrior

The issue is, that only liberals can tell us how to think, and what to think, about this.

The liberals have decided that American Indian nicknames are demeaning, and since liberals have such great wisdom to tell the rest of us how to live, we’re supposed to be in awe of their pronouncements.

But I also wonder about other nicknames too.

For example, is Boston Celtics insulting to the Celtic people?

What about Notre Dame Fighting Irish, or Minnesota Vikings?

Is San Diego Padres insulting to the Catholic Church? What about New Orleans Saints?

Is Dallas Cowboys demeaning to real cowboys?

Is Pittsburgh Steelers insulting to real steel workers?

Are all of the animal nicknames insulting to the animals?


5 posted on 09/20/2013 7:45:08 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Gaffer
The money quote from the column:

"Doesn't matter. The 81-year-old Washington Redskins name is falling, and everybody better get out of the way. For the majority of Native Americans who don't care, we'll care for them. For the Native Americans who haven't asked for help, we're glad to give it to them.

Trust us. We know what's best. We'll take this away for your own good, and put up barriers that protect you from ever being harmed again.

Kind of like a reservation."

6 posted on 09/20/2013 7:45:31 AM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: humblegunner

I think the “real” name would be the corporate name. It’s probably incorporated as a business as something such as Washington Pro Football, Inc.


7 posted on 09/20/2013 7:47:01 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: GSWarrior
I have noticed that the people who are always “outraged” at these team names are never actual members of the seemingly offended groups. They are those pathetic souls who are the “professionally outraged”, who bitch and moan about everything.

What a bunch of sad sack losers.

8 posted on 09/20/2013 7:52:05 AM PDT by Wordkraft (Remember who the Collaborators are.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

We live in a world where many want to be victims.


9 posted on 09/20/2013 7:52:49 AM PDT by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: Wordkraft

Exactly! The people who are outraged tend to be liberals, who are looking to fix all problems of society, real and imagined. The liberals have decided that American Indian nicknames are insulting and demeaning. And we’re supposed to kowtow to them, and make the changes they want.

And an irony here, is that many of these liberals aren’t even football fans. They never watch a Redskins game, and won’t watch their games even if they changed their name. So people who have to clue about sports want to tell sports teams and their fans what to think.


10 posted on 09/20/2013 7:55:01 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego
"Are all of the animal nicknames insulting to the animals?"

Well, I can think of one case where that might be true: the Carolina Panthers, my team. Panthers everywhere are likely insulted at being linked with those losers. The big cat roar they play at the stadium should probably be changed to a kitten's mew.

11 posted on 09/20/2013 8:00:30 AM PDT by CatherineofAragon (Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.)
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To: GSWarrior

The team nick names are not intended as denigration, but quite the contrary celebrate the power and strength of these icons.


12 posted on 09/20/2013 8:05:10 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: GSWarrior
Being a Chippewa from CMU, I was really disgusted when Eastern Michigan changed their name from the Hurons to the Falcons.
13 posted on 09/20/2013 8:07:56 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage? (Held my nose to vote.)
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To: The Great RJ

That’s what I always thought about nicknames, that they are celebrating strength and power. But try explaining that to the liberals who are pushing this issue.


14 posted on 09/20/2013 8:10:32 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: GSWarrior

Fighting Whities!


15 posted on 09/20/2013 8:14:28 AM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: GSWarrior
"Doesn't matter. The 81-year-old Washington Redskins name is falling, and everybody better get out of the way. For the majority of Native Americans who don't care, we'll care for them. For the Native Americans who haven't asked for help, we're glad to give it to them.

Trust us. We know what's best. We'll take this away for your own good, and put up barriers that protect you from ever being harmed again.

Kind of like a reservation."

Reilly is an Obama-loving, Tebow-hating loony lib but he nails the libs on this one. The irony is that this is how liberals think on a whole gambit of issues and this is only one of them. Reilly probably agrees with the libs on most of it.

16 posted on 09/20/2013 8:19:44 AM PDT by OrangeHoof (Howdy to all you government agents spying on me.)
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To: GSWarrior

There’s the problem. He identifies as a Blackfoot indian and not aa Blackfoot Native American. He obviously hates himself so much that he can’t get worked up over it.


17 posted on 09/20/2013 8:27:17 AM PDT by Tanniker Smith (Rome didn't fall in a day, either.)
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To: GSWarrior

I vote neither, they’re just names.


18 posted on 09/20/2013 8:28:41 AM PDT by discostu (This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin' out there.)
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To: GSWarrior

Washington Aborigines


19 posted on 09/20/2013 8:35:23 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Dalberg-Acton
"Don't worry it going to be all white"

I was wondering if that would show up. OBTW, the "Fighting Whities" T-shirts and polo shirts have raised a whole pile of money for that Indian high school team. It also taught the students that sometimes "issues" aren't issues.

20 posted on 09/20/2013 8:35:37 AM PDT by fini
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