Posted on 09/24/2004 9:49:29 PM PDT by El Conservador
WASHINGTON - A poll of American Indians found that an overwhelming majority of them are not bothered by the name of the Washington Redskins (news).
Only 9 percent of those polled said the name of the NFL team is "offensive," while 90 percent said it's acceptable, according to the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, released Friday.
Annenberg polled 768 Indians in every state except Hawaii and Alaska from Oct. 7, 2003, to Sept. 20, 2004.
The survey found little disparity between men and women or young and old. However, 13 percent of Indians with college degrees said the name is offensive, compared with 9 percent of those with some college and 6 percent of those with a high school education or less. Among self-identified liberals, 14 percent found the term disparaging, compared with 6 percent of conservatives.
The franchise began in Boston as the Braves but was purchased in 1932 by George Preston Marshall, who changed the name to honor head coach William "Lone Star" Dietz, an American Indian. The team kept its monicker after moving to the nation's capital in 1937.
The name and feather-wearing mascot have since been challenged.
A panel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled the team's trademarks in 1999 on the grounds that the name disparages American Indians in violation of federal trademark law. But last year, a federal judge ruled the team can keep its name, finding insufficient evidence to conclude it is an insult to American Indians.
Some Indian leaders are still pressing their case, noting that many schools with similar mascots referencing Indians have made name changes in recent years.
Pehaps being a Dallas Cowboys' fan may tint my view, but down here we call em the Deadskins...
That way we don't insult any Native Americans.
I am an American Indian. I say that the Indian names and mascots are just fine. O K, that is settled , move along now.
when i buy a team, i'm gonna name it the "shanty irish". with pride.
So i'll give them that one. But being offended by team names such as Indians, Chiefs, Braves, Seminoles etc... is just plain silly.
I use to live in Indiana..i thought Hoosier came from many yrs ago when kids were going up and would ask thier friends.."WHO'S YOU MOM, WHO'S YOU DAD whooosiers
LOL
I'm going to start a private school - the nickname will be the Crusaders and the mascot will be a well-armed creature.
The Indian should be proud of using the name...and your right.it is silly..
I was talking with a Cherokee friend (he's on the rolls). In the course of conversation he referred to someone as Indian, not Cherokee. I was shocked and asked him if he found the term Indian offensive. He laughed and said, "I'm Cherokee. He's indian. I'm not offended. He probably calls me Indian and himself Seminole. We call people Indians if they aren't part of our tribe or even our clan."
At a dfferent time I was talking with a girl in my friend's city. She was working behind the counter at Subway. She told me she was born and raised on a Navajo reservation. She moved away from Arizona to go to the free college in my friend's city. I noticed that if she didn't like an Indian co-worker or a customer, she'd call them apples under her breath. *Apple? What's an apple?* She smiled at my ignorance and said, "Red on the outside, white on the inside." Not satisfied with the reason why, I asked my Cherokee friend why she was calling people apples and he said, "Some just off the reservation think they're purer. They use terms like apple because they think their crap doesn't stink. Apple makes some of us mad but I just laugh and think she's ignorant."
Moral to all the PC hounds: Apparently, if you really want to offend some American Indians (Cherokee in my friend's case) call them apples. And if you want to ban something in your PC crusade start with your beloved liberal NYC's nickname, The Big Apple.
Burbank, Ca.
More often, team names result in identification with the mascot. So that Indians, Redskins, and such names had white, black and Latino folks all claiming to "be" Indians and reciting all of the positive aspects that that association means.
The images people pull from this experience come more from the Boy Scouts than from Hollywood Westerns. So why, would Native Americans want to cut themselves out of this amplification of their importance and values in society? Perhaps the folks behind this movement are wanting to remove Native American values from the American conscious. If you couple this with the assault on the Scouts of America... it really seems like the left really really is pursuing this.
bump...
I don't have a problem with this - I am a little bothered by stereotypical mascots, but the names don't offend me in the least...
That being said, I am proud that many weapoms systems are so named... Apache, Commanche, Tomohawk etc...
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