D.C. City Council to tackle pressing Washington problem: Getting the Redskins to change their name

In fairness, thanks to you and your tax dollars, the city’s doing well enough these days that its government can afford to waste time on self-congratulatory concern-trolling of a local sports team. I wonder what they’ll do if Hillary gets elected in 2016 and the big-government gravy train keeps on rolling. Frankly, it’s long past time that the “Washington Capitals” became the “Washington Socialists.”

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At the very least, the local hoops team should complete its transformation from the Bullets to the Wizards to, at long last, the Background Checks.

Council member David Grosso, an independent elected last year, said he plans to pursue his non-binding resolution because the current name is “a derogatory, racist name.”…

According to Grosso’s resolution, which he plans to formally introduce in a few weeks, the 13-member council would declare that “District residents and their elected representatives should not tolerate commercial or other use of derogatory terminology relating to any people’s racial identity, or which dishonors any person’s race, or which dishonors the name Washington.”

“Washington’s name has been dishonored by association with the word ‘Redskins,’ ” the resolution states. “Because it is well known in America and in nations afar that American Indians have experienced utmost suffering and disrespect over the years.”…

In his resolution, Grosso urges the the team to change its name to the Washington Redtails, noting that that was the nickname used by the Tuskegee Airmen.

I can’t prove that this tweet is any way related to the above, but it’s … interesting timing:

Even in WaPo’s online poll, at last check 55 percent were in favor of keeping the name, although that may reflect opinion among the readership of sites linking to their article today more so than the Post’s own readership. Anyway, tell the truth: 90 percent of the pushback against changing the “Redskins” name is resistance to political correctness generally, not a special defense of this particular nickname, right? Yeah, yeah, they’re a “storied franchise,” there’s lots of tradition, etc, but no one thinks “Blackskins” or “Brownskins” would fly if someone tried that today. St. John’s University changed their name from the “Redmen” to the “Red Storm” in the mid-90s to avoid offending Native Americans, even though (as I recall) “Redmen” initially came from the color of their uniforms, not from a racial slur. The ‘Skins are going to change their name eventually for the same reason. If they’re holding out now, it’s mainly because, I think, they don’t want to be pressured into making the switch. They’ll do it on their own terms, when they’re ready.

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Update: Let the left-wing pants-wetting over RGIII’s tweet begin!

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Beege Welborn 5:00 PM | December 24, 2024
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