The Argument Against The Washington Racial Slurs Football Team

We've been discussing this with people recently....and I have more information to share but figure that this was one of those things that I wanted to share with everyone...not just those few individuals.  It's a pretty hot topic after that one episode of the Daily Show and with some of the ads you may or may not have seen.





And some of you know that I'm in a Native American Humanities class where we've been discussing and reading about this over the past few months.  Matthew posted something on the book of face at the beginning of the football season that got a bit of back and forth commenting, but I feel like it needs a little more attention.

red·skin  n.
usually offensive.
-American Indian
-the word 'redskin' is offensive and should be avoided

From wikipedia: In a 2014 interview after the Trademark decision, Amanda Blackhorse the lead petitioner expressed her opinion: "The name itself actually dates back [to] the time when the Native American population was being exterminated, and bounty hunters were hired to kill Native American people... So, in order to show that they made their kill, they had to bring back a scalp or their skin."

From "Just Good Sports" by Suzan Shown Harjo: "The most derogatory name for Native Peoples in the English language is 'redskins'. The term has its origins in the late 1600s, when Europeans introduced commercial bounty-hunting in North America. they first paid fur trappers and other mercenaries for the heads and whole bodies of Native men, women, and children. When that practice proved too cumbersome, bounty-payers accepted the bloody red skins and scalps as proof of 'Indian kill'. From that time and into the 1900s, 'redskins' was the term that was used in newspapers and books when writers wanted to convey the worst impression of Native Peoples. In Hollywood westerns, the term was usually preceded by such adjectives as 'dirty', 'lazy', 'no good' and 'theiving'. The term is despised by most Native Peoples and is seldom used in polite society now, except as a 'Native' sports reference."

So there's all of that.
And with that, I understand that some people are slanting the conversation by thinking that the term is somehow "honoring" the Native American culture.
But please....explain to me how it's supposed to be an honor to remind someone of that term's origin?

There are these defenses:
    "But there are the Celtics and the Vikings....and they aren't all pissed off about logos...."
When was the last time you saw a Celtic or a Viking?

And aren't Irish people kinda done with being likened to leprechauns?
If they aren't, you know why that is?
Because they were white dudes coming up with ideas for a team name and logo.  It was self-appointed.
Because teams like "the fighting Irish" don't mind having a little angry drunk leprechaun as their logo.
And because teams like the "Patriots" don't mind having a brooding white dude as their logo.

"But what about the Buccaneers or the pirates on the Raiders logo?"  Stop.
Those are occupations.
That don't exist anymore.

"The Seminoles signed off on using 'Chief' Osceola as a mascot."
1. The Seminoles have a lot of casino money pumping into the state of Florida.
2. When they signed off on it, they were able to keep more of their casino money instead of getting into a lawsuit.
3. Osceola was never a chief and the "mascot" is a white dude in red face.

Not any less offensive. Just sold.

If you're a team that's completely making up a Native American character or changing who an actual person was in history...how is that honoring anything?

And what the fuck is this about?

Do you think there would ever be a team that would even consider making a banner that said, "Hey Jews, you stink! Head for the showers!!" or "Let's hang those Negroes high!"
Ugh...that's just awful.  Seriously, even just typing that out, I hurt my own feelings and all I can visualize in my head is a bunch of twat cheerleaders standing around all Mean Girls style coming up with that horrible shite above.
I graduated from Apopka and the worst of our banners was just "Pioneers can suck a fatty!!"
I still don't really know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  Exactly what kind of "fatty" are we talking about here?

"But Dan Snyder started Original Americans Foundation and is giving back to certain tribal communities."....
1. OAF is a dumb name.
     oaf.  n.
          -a clumsy, stupid person; a lout.
-AND-
2. Good.  He should be.

Do I think the Washington football team should change their name?
It's probably not a bad idea and is likely to happen in the near future, but ultimately, I don't care too much because I'm not a fan, I don't buy their merchandise, and am falling out of love (if there ever was any) with the NFL as a whole anyway.
Plus, they suck.

GO BUCS!!

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Sunday, November 16, 1:00 PM

FedEx Field, Landover, Maryland

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-8)

27 - 7

Final

Washington Redskins (3-7)

WTH Weds - Boston Highlights Pt. 1

Friday marnin', we hit the skyclub to see what the haps was.  They'd hooked Matt up with at least a day pass and we drank brunch & had snacks.  The rosemary seasalt crackers are pretty badass.

For crackers, I mean.  They were/are the shit.

Matthew's been eating them for days.  Pretty sure he'll come home smellin' like rosemary.

I ain't mad at that.

Anyway, our flight was delayed so we facebooked & crap.

Hopped the flight, grabbed a cab.  He overcharged us to the hotel and we got checked in.

Props to the Marriott Copley.  Great spot.  Nice "sports bar" & breakfast buffet.

Here's what our view looked like from the room:

It was the only photo I took with the canon.

I took the entire camera bag with me, but didn't take the camera out on adventures.  Couldn't be bothered to.  I did get some kickass footage of the Murphys show.

Which was fuckin' AWESOME.

Fenway was cool.  Boston in general is cool.

I told Matthew it was my 2nd favorite city.  He didn't ask me what the 1st was.....he'd assumed it was NYC.

NYC has been bumped to #3, sadly.

Amsterdam being the first.

Boston #2. (haha.....number 2.  that's poo)

Its the combination of smaller town with big city urban feel.

The top 2 feel like big small towns to me.

If that makes sense.

I rarely do.

Anyway, back to the show.

MightyMighty Bosstones were playing when we hopped out the cab from McGreevy's (pregame car bombs).

The stage was set up in centerfield.

It looked like this:

We found an empty row and counted scally caps.

When the Bosstones were done kickin' everyone's ass, we made a pee/beer run.

The bathroom had a long line & smelled like snax while "no smoking" signs were posted about.

My stall didn't have a latch.

Found the friends and grabbed some brews.

Found our empty row again.

There was a bloke who looked slightly like Warren Ellis with a very long ponytail & a hat.

He appeared to not be having a good time.

We included him in on our fun.

Although I don't think he was as amused as we were.

The Murphys came out along the green monster wall with bag pipes playing.

The moon was almost full and a breeze was blowin'.

I gotta admit, I got a little teary eyed.

Shut up, I'm a girl.  I'm allowed to do that.

The stage backdrop was the skeleton pipes player, same as the shoes that Matthew got me.

We jumped & sang along & swayed with beer & threw our fists in the air & yelled....

and it was heavenly.

Afterwards, we walked back to Whiskey's and had some killer $.99 pizza & put a sticker on an armadillo.

The End of Part 1.