American Indian activists have protested the use of Native Americans as mascots for decades. Despite their outcry, the United States is still home to teams such as the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Redskins.
But the days Washington's NFL team is known as the Redskins may be numbered. In 1992, seven activists went to court to challenge whether the NFL team had a right to trademark the Redskins name. They argued that it violates the Lanham Act of 1946, which prohibits organizations from using disparaging trademark names.
The American Heritage College Dictionary defines "redskin" as offensive slang "used as a disparaging term for a Native American." But because the football team registered it as a trademark back in 1967, the courts said that the American Indian activists launched their legal challenge after the statute of limitations had passed. Last week, however, the plaintiffs announced that 17 years after their legal challenge was tossed out, they'll petition the Supreme Court to reexamine their case.
Suzan Harjo, one of the plaintiffs, summed up her exchanges with the opposition.
"The argument has always been the same," Harjo told Washington Post columnist Mike Wise. "'We are honoring you,' they say. 'No, you're not,' we reply. 'Shut up,' they say. That's pretty much the divide for 17 years."
A slew of athletic organizations have dropped Native American references in their names over the years. Wise reports that more than 3,000 sports teams had names associated with American Indians in 1970. Today, that number has dropped to fewer than 1,000. Pro sports teams, though, seem reluctant to part ways with their American Indian monikers.
Sure, millions of dollars in merchandise sport the Redskins name, but the money at stake is no excuse for Washington's football team to continue using this racial slur. Presumably, some of the hesitation to drop the name is due to the fact that Native Americans make up a scant 1.5% of the U.S. population. How much public outcry can be expected from an issue that affects such a small minority? On the other hand, no team would dare to call themselves, say, the Detroit Darkies or the Brownsville Beaners. The name "redskin" is just as offensive as these names, though.
The NFL says that the Washington football team's use of "redskin" refers to the red paint used on the skin of Indian warriors, reported Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke. But whether the name is a reference to war paint or the skin coloring of Native Americans is really a moot point. An ethnic slur is an ethnic slur.
"Of the several high-profile Native American nicknames still alive in sports, nothing is more clearly disparaging than this one," he wrote.
For those of you who are unconvinced that such names do damage, Mike Wise described interviewing a Minnesota man named Phil St. John. St. John shared a horrible experience attending a high school basketball game with his son. "A white kid in war paint...made 'woo-woo' sounds in his child's face--until his kid turned away in shame, his self-esteem destroyed," Wise remarked.
I hope that the next generation of Native kids won't have to endure such taunting at sporting events.