Then you should also be against the United States claiming that it landed on the Moon since more than 9% of people polled in 2005-06 doubted that it happened.
Democracy is a good thing, sometimes.
I think this is the worst argument I’ve ever seen on this board, and I have seen some real doozies.
Is there any data to show that Indians find the name offensive?
As long as the team uses the Chief Wahoo logo, the team name itself is not the primary problem. Now* that’s* offensive.
The team has been making a lot of changes to uniforms, etc. that seem to be moving away from Chief Wahoo–using the block C and script I logos on the hats, for example.
I’ve seen polls that show there is some offense, and every game I’ve ever been to had protesters, though generally not in huge numbers.
Dropping Chief Wahoo while not dropping the name strikes me as more difficult for PR.
I just hope that Oklahoma (Choctaw for “red people”) doesn’t have to change its name because I don’t want to get new business cards.
Wouldn’t you say the exact same thing about “redskins”?
I think this is much ado about the usual PC nonsense. The same forces are at work here that got marquette University to change from Warriors to Golden Eagles, and made the stink about the Nyack Indians. If only 9% of the people are offended, end of story.
When the Patent Office overturned the same type of ruling, which prompted this celebratory thread several years ago, they did so because they claimed to not have enough evidence. They provided a lot of evidence this time around. So if this appeal is successful, it won’t be because of a lack of evidence.
Hopefully this will be the first real step to get that team to change it’s godforsaken name long past when they should have done so.
That’s BS, why do people care if they change their name? It’s because they have nothing better to do.
It’s because Native Americans don’t need to be reminded of their second class citizenship and history every Sunday in the fall.
90 percent of them don’t care either
I wouldn’t use it as authoritatively as some posters of SBMB Circa 2009 did:
So… changing the Redskins’ name is going to solve all of their problems? :rolleyes:
Perhaps society should prioritize actually improving Native Americans’ situation before we go after organizations that are allegedly disparaging them, but that would require actual investment and involvement on the part of those criticizing, hmm?
Nice strawman. Nobody said it would help all of their problems. It would be a nice start however, one that wouldn’t cost a dime to fix.
What shot do we have of convincing society that Native Americans have a lot of problems, almost all of which have been started by the treatment that they have received, and go about trying to fix them if society is not only willing to allow a team to have the name Redskins but even fight for that name to continue to be used in the face of overwhelming evidence that the term is disparaging to Native Americans?
Actually improving the Native Americans’ situation is not mutually exclusive with changing a team name that also happens to be a racial slur.
But that’s a business decision on the part of the owner. The law says that you can’t trademark a patently offensive phrase. I agree with the law and believe that the relevant authorities should obey it. I can see no public interest in enforcing trademarks for open bigots: get the government out of racial slur trademark enforcement. I do agree the owners of the Washington team should have free speech rights. As do I.
Also, years in which society’s standards about such things changed a great deal. Just ask the Kansas City Niggers.
“RED-SKIN, n. A North American Indian, whose skin is not red — at least not on the outside.”
– Ambrose Bierce
Was there really a team with that name or are you using hyperbole to make a (valid) point?
I only ask because the Google results were fucking frightening.
It wouldn’t cost you a dime to fix.
Okay, so the Redskins change their name. This is the first tile in a set of dominoes that’s going to set in motion a revolution in the way Native Americans are treated in this country? That’s complete bullshit and you know it. The PC police get the Redskins to change their name, and the next step in the Native American cause is-- NOTHING! The team becomes something else, and all the PC harpies buzzing around disappear and never think about Native Americans again for the rest of their life, because it never really mattered to them in the first place, it was just the “cause of the week” in The Recreational Activism Newsletter and in the meantime NOTHING ACTUALLY CHANGES FOR NATIVE AMERICANS, because the painful truth is NOBODY REALLY FUCKING CARES.
The fact that Native Americans have a lot of problems is no secret to anybody; hasn’t been for decades, at the least. The fact that the idea of The Noble Native American is romantic and appealing to Americans translates to exactly jack shit when it comes to actual action. The plight of Native Americans is a complicated issue that we don’t need to get into, but my point is we’re aiming a very large gun at a very small fish; big picture, this solves nothing. This is convincing Jay-Z to stop using the n-word, then declaring victory over said word. It’s meaningless. And the fact that there are any people, Native American or no, who would actually consider that any sort of meaningful “victory” is just sad.
Actually, I was flashing on an old SNL “Franken and Davis” sketch about what American sports teams would be called if the Injuns had won the Indian Wars. Other teams named were the “Polacks,” etc.