I've got this buddy from high school--nice guy, former Army Ranger, All-American--who I've traded arguments with recently about the use of the word "Redskin" as a mascot. One very specific team's use of it; the Washington professional football team.
He's for it. I'm against.
In his arguments, he cites the 2004 Annenberg survey of 768 people who identify as Native Americans claiming they think the use of the word is okay as a big reason why the word isn't offensive. I say it's racist. On just the basis of those arguments, you would think that he's the logical one and I'm the emotional one. But in reality it's just the opposite.
You see, my friend lives in the heart of Washington football territory. We both grew up in the area, both were rabid team fans as kids and while I stayed close to home for college, he traveled the world via the US Army. But life settled us elsewhere; he moved back while I leap-frogged the country and settled into the Pacific Northwest outside of Seattle.
There's no way that this posting addresses all the arguments and counter-arguments of the issue--you need more time and space than I have have to give--it would require serious scholarship and personal commitment to remove all of the false information on both sides.
Fortunately, my friend and I can disagree on the mater and still find common ground in other topics. This is a notable achievement these days as people seem to move toward extremes on all issues. Which is why when I write that my friend is blind, it's with the intent to explain that people like him who fail to see the offensiveness of the word are not bad or stupid or bigoted--they just don't see it because they live in the middle of it--like a fish in water. Hell, it took me moving 3,000 miles away and a lot of life lessons to finally agree that the word is offensive.
But inevitably, the word will cease to be a mascot for teams at all levels of competition. We're living in an age of cultural enlightenment, like it or not, and those heritage-type terms are no longer acceptable. It will probably take some sort of tragedy to finally bring this one to a close, but it's days are numbered. Just like the Confederate flag.
