Perhaps Slate would like to put up a few bucks as a prize for renaming the REDSKINS....for their specific "purposes"
the washington reds ...would work well ,,,if the team were comprised of POLITICAL OPERATIVES.
The WASHINGTON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES??
“And what should replace Redskins? A D.C. city councilmember cleverly proposed “Redtails,” the nickname of the Tuskegee Airmen. It nods at the city’s African-American heritage, and would allow Snyder to keep a feather in the logo.”
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If a team name like Redskin or Cherokee means derision, scorn and contempt for a group instead of highly valuing that group, then doesn’t that apply to a name like “Washington Redtails”?
My alma mater - Jesuit-run Seattle University, which has turned hard-left since I was there - changed its nickname from “Chieftains” to “Red Hawks” a number of years ago. What is offensive about “Chieftains”? In fact, it is technically not even limited to Native American culture, although that of course was the intent when it was chosen. At least “Red Hawks” is a decent name with some local relevance, unlike the absurd “Stanford Cardinal.”
Changing how you talk changes how you think. The adoption of the term “African-American”—replacing “Negro” and “colored”—in the aftermath of the civil rights movement brought a welcome symmetry with Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans, groups defined by geographic origin rather than by race or color. Replacing “same-sex marriage” with “marriage equality” helped make gay marriage a universal cause rather than a special pleading. If Slate can do a small part to change the way people talk about the team, that will be enough.OK then. I'll support a name other than Redskins WHEN the NAACP and the Negro College Fund change THEIR names.