Leave the ‘Skins Alone!

Posted on August 8, 2013 by ScottC

Slate magazine today declared that the name of the Washington professional football team, the Redskins, is forever banned from its pages. The name, apparently, is simply too offensive and Slate is taking a stand.

Which is actually a bit weird. Slate admits that the name “is not an open-and-shut outrage” and that it “has a relatively innocent history.” It acknowledges that the name’s creator, original team own George Preston Marshall, “was almost certainly trying to invoke Indian bravery and toughness, not to impugn Indians,” and even that current team owner Dan Snyder probably “is[n’t] lying to us or to himself when he sees only the bright side of the name.” Why, then, is Slate so adamant about joining the bandwagon to get the Redskins to become, well, something else? Because, it says, times have changed.”[T]ime passes, the world changes, and all of a sudden a well-intentioned symbol is an embarrassment.”

Well, yes, time has passed, and the world has changed. But the only really relevant change is the fact that the term “redskin” no longer possesses whatever derogatory connotations it might once have had. Why? Precisely because it is the name of the Washington football team. When was the last time anyone heard the word used in a context outside of a sports team name, in a derogatory manner? Google the term “redskin” and the only results you will get…the only results, page after page…will be references to the football team. In fact the use of the term as a team name has pretty much eliminated its effectiveness as a slur, even if someone wanted to use it as such. To the average person in America the term means and brings to mind only one thing…the Washington football team.

It is rare to be able to take a slur (again, to whatever extent it ever was one) and eliminate the sting inherent in the word. Some critics of the name have tried to press their point by asking us to try to imagine using other ethnic slurs as the name of a sports team, like for example the Washington N-words. Absurd and offensive, of course. But imagine that just such a thing had been done in a long distant, less sensitive time, and imagine further that, as a result of its repeated and common use in that context, no one ever used the term as a racial epithet anymore. To use the word was to refer to a sports team, not to demean a black person. Wouldn’t that actually be a welcome change from our current situation in which the word – a simple word! – is so powerful and taboo that mature adults have to act like embarrassed grade schoolers reporting to the teacher that they heard someone cursing (“He said the f-word!!!”)? Of course we have no hope of that ever happening with the dreaded n-word, which will forever carry its historical implications and therefore will also always be banished from polite conversation. But that is precisely what has happened with the term redskin, even if not by design. Why shouldn’t that achievement be embraced?

Besides, consider the following:

Washington Redskins Fighting Irish

Now you tell me, which of these is a more offensive stereotype: the staid, dignified Native American of the Washington Redskins, or the impish, belligerent, and almost certainly itching-for-a-brawl drunk of the Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish? If the latter isn’t too offensive to be mentioned and seen in polite company, neither is the former. Leave the ‘Skins alone.

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This day in history – August 8

Posted on August 8, 2013 by ScottC

I’ve been thinking about making an effort at maintaining a new ATiM daily feature…Today in History. Maybe it will spark a few conversations. With Brent on sabbatical for a couple days, now seems like a good time to start. We’ll see how long I last.

1988 – The Chicago Cubs finally succumb to modern times as the first night game ever is played under the newly installed lights at Wrigley Field. The game, however, is rained out in the 4th with the Cubs leading the Phillies 3-1. I like day games, and I really like Wrigley Field.

1974 – President Richard M. Nixon takes to the airwaves to announce his resignation, effective the next day at noon. I remember my parents gathering us kids in the family room to watch the announcement, telling us the removal of a President would be a once in a lifetime event. Clinton almost proved them wrong. I wish Obama would.

1966 – The future Mrs. ScottC is born.

1960 – Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini hits number 1 on the Billboard charts.

1945 – President Harry Truman signs the United Nations Charter and the US becomes the first nation to ratify membership in the UN.

1942 – Six German saboteurs who had secretly landed on Long Island in June are executed after a military tribunal finds them guilty of spying. The case would later be cited by the Bush administration in support of trying unlawful combatants by military tribunals rather than in civilian courts.

1911 – The Apportionment Law (Public Law 62-5), setting the number representative in the House at 435, passes Congress. I think it is high time for the size of the House to be increased again. Too few reps representing too many people.

1882 – Snow falls on Lake Michigan, prompting Democrats to propose economy-destroying regulations in a panic over catastrophic global cooling. (OK, I made up that second part.)

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