Worst Name in Sports
On ESPN.com a couple weeks ago, there was an article about the Washington Redskins. The article said that several members of Native American tribes are in court trying to get the NFL to change the name of the Redskins. There was a verdict awarded in favor of the Native American tribes back in 1992, but there was an appeal and the ruling was in favor of the NFL. The reason for that being was that it was too late to change. This ruling is ridiculous because the Redskins were started in the 1930’s and there was no way for anyone to challenge it.
Colleges have had the same issue. Syracuse used to be called the Orangemen, but have since changed to the Orange and Stanford was once called the Indians, but are now the Cardinals. I realize that the NCAA is not the same as the NFL, but at the same time the NFL should have higher standards that they hold their teams to. It seems that not too many people are jumping on this and making it a bigger issue. The article on ESPN’s site was buried under the headlines and was only a couple of paragraphs long. The issue also received no attention from Sportscenter. It is sad that while we have come so far on issues similar to this since the 70’s, that we are still talking about teams like the Redskins and the MLB’s Cleveland Indians.
Say what you want but Native Americans have been treated worse than any other race of people in the history of the world. You can argue that the Jews were treated worse because of World War II, but at least the Nazi party let them ride on trains. The United States rounded up all the Native American tribes in the South and made them walk from places like Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia all the way to Oklahoma, now called the Trail of Tears. They are one of the only races in the world to be pushed so close to the verge of extinction, with the blame falling onto the United States of America. And now in 2009 we still have teams and mascots that poke fun at certain things they do and the way they look. Ask yourself this: would their name still be allowed to be the Washington N-words? The answer is no.
The point is that we need to rid ourselves of things like this. The media historically have been able to help change take place for example exposing workers conditions, wrong doing in insane asylums, exposing Vietnam, and breaking Richard Nixon. But I don’t see the same type of interest being taking up for this cause and I’m saddened by it. I for one have started boycott calling them by their mascot name and only refer to them as Washington. It’s time for another change in this country and do away with names like this in sports.
article by Chris Johnson
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