Not too long ago members of the S'Klallam tribe mounted a relentless campaign to dump a local school's Redskins mascot. They attended public hearings, harangued, and blogged, and bulldozed until the mascot and logo were expunged. A wider jihad against the Washington Redskins NFL football team has gone on for years.
Good grief. I have to wonder what’s next. Perhaps, even names such as Braves and Indians will be caught in the roundup of shamed usage. They'll become demeaning stereotypes no longer fit for politically correct company.
Could pacifists one day find Fighting Irish too reminiscent of saloon
brawling in which the Irish often figured prominently. Or Vikings get the boot at some point... the horned Viking helmet logo scrapped. Just another too painful reminder of a darker era when marauding Vikings brought terror to neighbors' shores.
Studies show that Redskin is not used in a racist or disparaging way
in today’s world and hasn’t been for generations. Search recent memory banks... can anyone point to a disparaging racist usage of the term in modern times... in media or film, on racist signs seen at marches, overheard in beer joints, written in police reports of hate crimes... anyone? Even many tribes do not share the concern and haven't jumped on this rickety, bullying bandwagon.
There's a funny scene In the movie 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' which depicts an era in which the words
redskins and palefaces were likely used as racist insults. Both words are spoken and the
speaker quickly follows with “no offense” And, in each case, the one hearing
responds “none taken”. Of course, in the movie, both speakers were on
the same side fighting real villains. But the point is we can laugh because any racist subtext is long gone.
There are of course words that do have a pernicious linkage to racism and are no longer used. But, just as Fighting Irish or the Vikings don’t
evoke opprobrium today, Redskins should be given a pass.
Certainly, it's absurd to think sports team monikers were designed with racist undertones. They're not even used by the garden variety racist today for heaven's sake. Any
lingering racist use of the term should just be seen as the
weakness it is.
Political correctness has become a game of empowering the private
rage of a few, no matter what the cost. In this case it's bullying under the guise of exorcising ghosts long since vanished. Maybe, the world’s real issues
and problems are so daunting there’s a need to invent new ones out of
pain or frustration. But that effort is misguided.
