The Washington Redskins finally appear to be caving in to pressure from major corporations and elite media to rename the franchise even though Native Americans themselves don’t find it offensive.
But just like with the rapid change from targeting Confederate statues to targeting the Founding Fathers, don’t expect the Redskins to be the outrage mob’s final target.
The Redskins were named in 1933 in honor of the bravery shown by Native American warriors long before football was a thing. (After all, no one names their own team something that’s intended to be derogatory.) And in this case, the name, which refers to the red paint that some tribes once wore into battle, was also initially a reference to the believed Native American heritage of the team’s first coach, William Dietz.
Still, “Redskin” is not woke, so it’s on its way out. The ‘Skins are likely to be joined by the Cleveland Indians, who are looking to get out ahead of the mob by announcing that they will be discussing a name change.
It’s not going to stop at those two teams. This was evident before the most recent Super Bowl, when the Kansas City Chiefs name came under fire from multiple left-wing outlets. Following the time-honored tradition of pretending to give a straight news report while letting quoted experts tell you what to think, CNN dismissed that the name honors Native Americans and said that it is dehumanizing. Salon, for its part, argued that both the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers held racist names.
Surely, the Buffalo Bills cannot be far behind.
The other two prominent names that will come under fire will be the Atlanta Braves and the Florida State Seminoles. The Braves, sharing a sport with the Indians, came out with a statement that appeared to show they have no plan to change the name. The team has already come under fire for the “Tomahawk Chop,” a fan favorite chant that the team limited during the playoffs last year. The Seminoles are often credited with being the first to use the chant.
The Washington Post, which has argued that the Redskins name is a slur, found in a 2016 poll of Native Americans that only 9% of the Native American community polled found the name offensive. A less scientific poll from 2019 found that the most common emotion associated with the name was “pride.” The Braves, Chiefs, and Seminoles all seem like no-brainers by comparison. But as the anti-Chiefs pieces argue, it’s the imagery that makes the team names offensive, not the names themselves.
If the Redskins were to change their name to the Warriors and keep the Native American imagery, would that be accepted? Probably not, as the Chiefs and Braves have shown. If “Redskin” or “Indian” is really deemed a slur, their names won’t be missed. But the notion that erasing Native Americans from our shared culture will be an improvement for anybody is a mistaken one.
