Frank Deford on the radio this morning was talking about offensive team names, and he brought up the Redskins.
He claimed that the term redskin did not refer to the color of skin, but rather the term came from the bounty for Indian scalps. The red was blood. I have never heard this, and frankly it sounded a lot like some of the BS etymologies I’ve heard over the years.
I’ve checked Snopes, the Masters Achives, and etymonline.com, and cannot find anything to back up this claim.
I turn to the Teeming Millions. Is Frank Deford perpetuating ignorance here?
Deford is full of it. The Oxford English dictionary says the first instance of the term in print comes from 1699, and its always been a term that refers to the color of skin. I’ve written several articles on the use of Native American nicknames for sports teams over the past fifteen years, and I’ve never come across a source that supports his blody definition. If somebody else can find one, I’d love to know about it.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that “Redskin” isn’t a patently offensive term. That was the central premise of a legal battle that sought to deny the football team a trademark on their nickname.
I was a bit more upset with his comment ‘Never did white man speak with such forked tongue’ in reponse to the theory that naming sports teams after Native Americans was ‘honoring’ them.
Nice thing. Empathize with a group, then use a trite movie cliche that undermines your point!
While I was wondering about the scalp thing, I found myself annoyed at a more trivial, nitpicky complaint. Toward the end he said something along the lines of, “It’s a shame that we lack the courtesy to take these names from Native Americans and then turn around as insults,” or some other jumble. Er, sorry, I don’t have RP to listen at work. But, anyway, it was “We lack the courtesy to do [something bad.]” Sloppy.
I used to think I didn’t enjoy Frank Deford’s commentary because I’m not a sports enthusiast, but I began listening more closely and realized it’s because he’s not a very good writer.