The New York Daily News has announced that it won't use the word "Redskins" anymore in its coverage of the NFL's Washington franchise.
Good on 'em. And just in case you need some convincing, let's run this test: You and I will take a little trip to some tribe-owned resort and/or casino and/or anywhere else that might have Native American clients or employees - maybe we could drop in on a cop shop or a sheriff's department in northwestern New Mexico or southern Montana. Anyway, once we're inside, you go ahead and find some folks with dark hair and darkish skin and "that Indian look"; you stand face to face and you address them thusly: " Hey, Redskin - how ya doin'?" --or-- "Yo, Redskin, can we get a coupla beers over here?" --or-- "Wow, I didn't know so many Redskins were working for the police department."
You look 'em square in the eye and you say it loud and with all your usual bullshit I'm-no-racist conviction. You try that a good half dozen times with half a dozen people, and if nobody either verbally slaps you down or literally kicks you in the nuts, then I'm with you and I'll fight your fight against your Political Correctness Phantom Demons.
But if it turns out otherwise (and if we manage to survive the encounters), then you get to drag your dumbfuck attitudes a little closer to this end of last century and stop using that stoopid shitty word.
The Daily News publishes its annual, best-in-the-city National Football League preview on Thursday with one deliberate omission — the Washington franchise appears without the name Redskins.
Similarly, its logo depicting a feathered Native American has been replaced with an image that uses the team’s burgundy and gold colors to key readers to stories, columns and statistics relating to Washington.
Henceforth, in The News’ sports coverage, the team that has been known as the Redskins since 1933 will simply be called Washington.
Enormously popular and deeply ingrained in sporting culture, the Redskins name is a throwback to a vanished era of perniciously casual racial attitudes. No new franchise would consider adopting a name based on pigmentation — Whiteskins, Blackskins, Yellowskins or Redskins — today. The time has come to leave the word behind.
Good on 'em. And just in case you need some convincing, let's run this test: You and I will take a little trip to some tribe-owned resort and/or casino and/or anywhere else that might have Native American clients or employees - maybe we could drop in on a cop shop or a sheriff's department in northwestern New Mexico or southern Montana. Anyway, once we're inside, you go ahead and find some folks with dark hair and darkish skin and "that Indian look"; you stand face to face and you address them thusly: " Hey, Redskin - how ya doin'?" --or-- "Yo, Redskin, can we get a coupla beers over here?" --or-- "Wow, I didn't know so many Redskins were working for the police department."
You look 'em square in the eye and you say it loud and with all your usual bullshit I'm-no-racist conviction. You try that a good half dozen times with half a dozen people, and if nobody either verbally slaps you down or literally kicks you in the nuts, then I'm with you and I'll fight your fight against your Political Correctness Phantom Demons.
But if it turns out otherwise (and if we manage to survive the encounters), then you get to drag your dumbfuck attitudes a little closer to this end of last century and stop using that stoopid shitty word.
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