Welcome to the first installment of “W&M Responds,” our newest column dedicated to hearing William & Mary students’ opinions on the latest current events. On Wednesday, June 18th, the U.S. Patent Office made its decision to cancel six trademark of the Washington Redskins. For years, grassroots movements have been advocating for a change in name, arguing that “Redskins” is a derogatory term and its usage as a mascot for a sports team is a display of racism towards the Native American population. How do the students at William & Mary feel? We asked and you answered:
Many responses were found to be in favor of the patent cancellation…“I think it was a smart and effective move by the Patent Office to take action and encourage a name change on the fundamental level. While this won’t force the change, it definitely makes it difficult for proponents of the offensive name to argue its validity.”
“Thank god. It was derogatory and racist and I’m glad it’s gone. Why it took so long, I don’t understand. You don’t exploit and commercialize a racial slur into a multimillion dollar franchise by accident. That’s not something anyone should have fought to keep going.”
While many others felt as if the cancellation was unnecessary, even wrong…“The Redskins name was never made to be offensive, so the controversy itself is kind of frustrating. That being said, as the Redskins are being pushed to change their name the patent should not have been cancelled until there was a new name and logo chosen for the team. It’s almost as if the team has no branding at all anymore.”
“I think it’s an illegal and stupid move. The redskins have had their name for over 80 years. It was a name born out of honoring the Native Americans. Furthermore on polls 9 out of 10 Native Americans did not care about the name, did not find it offensive, and thought the debate was useless. The petition the patent office received was signed by 5 people, not 500, not 5000, but 5. If the American public want to censor everything they should change the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Braves, and the other “non-PC” names of teams as well. This entire debate is ludicrous, it is diversion politics. Let’s discuss this further while the president causes another war to start and trades 5 high profile terrorists for a deserter. I’m so incredibly sick of how this current administration uses race to their advantage while putting our country down the toilet. Why can’t we all be proud of our heritage and ourselves instead of being defensive. If people would stop looking for insults the country would be happier and more equal. Be proud of your past, of your present, and invest in your future– look at these things as an honor instead of a slight.”
And because this is William & Mary, one of our respondents decided to procrastinate from their internship and write us a full, in-depth commentary on the issue…“To be begin with, the question itself, how do I feel about the name change, is problematic. How do we feel about the name debate? How we feel… as white people or non-American Indians, it doesn’t matter. I believe that not everyone’s opinion is equal. Yeah, woah. As Cher Horowitz once said, “that’s way harsh, Tai.” (and also “reverse racism!”) But hear me out: to quote the Frisky, (http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-06-12/18-things-white-people-should-knowdo-before-discussing-racism/) “Discussions about racism should be all-inclusive and open to people of all skin colors. However, to put it simply, sometimes White people lack the experience or education that can provide a rudimentary foundation from which a productive conversation can be built. This is not necessarily the fault of the individual, but pervasive myths and misinformation have dominated mainstream racial discourse and often times, the important issues are never highlighted.” As people who are not American Indian, we really do not have relevant experiences or information to bring into the conversation. Another comparison would be that during the #YesAllWomen conversation we realized that the conversation isn’t about what men experience, but rather about the women’s experiences. Here, our opinions should not hold the same amount of weight as that of an American Indian. Unless we’re talking about the legal shenanigans that surround the decision, like whether or not cancelling the patent would actually be effective. I have no idea how law works so it’d be interesting to read people’s opinions on that. My response is just about why the name is, in fact, messed up.
I see in a lot of arguments that the whole controversy is led by a minority of American Indians. The statistic that I hear around a lot is that only 10% of American Indians are offended by name so it’s a non-issue. Shouldn’t it matter if even one person feels affected by racism? I feel like 10% is a pretty large number. If we were eating from a bowl of M&Ms and 10% of them were poisoned we’d be pretty panicked. Anyways, this lawsuit is not brought upon by a bunch of politically correct white guilt men. The lawsuit was led by an American Indian woman named Suzan Harjo. (http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-native-american-grandmother-who-just-beat-the-redskins-2014-6) So yes, there was an American Indian who led the efforts and she cared so much about the issue that she was willing to fight against a billion dollar sports team.
Anyways, here are some counter arguments to other prevalent Snyder arguments.
Argument number one: “Oh the name is honoring them!”They’re pretty bad at honoring people if one in ten of the honorees are offended. In an interview (http://espn.go.com/otl/americans/harjochat.html), Harjo responded to this idea with, “Even if that were the case (and I respectfully disagree with that view), they are not considered honorifics today by the vast majority of Native Americans. And, even if it were the case that one team meant well by it, it still would be the job of the other side to mock the image, name, traits of their opponents. The very nature of the context makes it preferable to just make the change and move on. My guess is that the Republic will still stand.” In addition, when asked with why people are so disrespectful to Native Americans, “That’s one of the problems with dehumanizing, objectifying images, names, behaviors — promotion of disrespect.”
Also, I feel as though in most cases it’s the job of the offender to stop being offensive if people get offended. (say offend one more time) It doesn’t matter if the intentions were good. Intentions don’t justify bad results. According to someone’s tumblr, (I know, teen-ish source but that doesn’t mean the words are any less true,) “NEWSFLASH: when you say this what you’re really saying is that your “intentions” matter more than the real feelings and emotions of the people you’ve hurt. It is also indicative of the fact that you are most likely operating from a position of privilege and power over those you’ve hurt. It takes a tremendous amount of narcissism to elevate your “intentions” and emotional universe over that of another and that is a symptom of privilege and the various systems of domination (white supremacist capitalist patriarchy) which affect all of our lives.” (http://owning-my-truth.com/post/89098908995/but-they-had-good-intentions)
Argument number two: “This is not the most important issue facing Native Americans today.” Yeah, but I feel like it’s a relatively easy fix? The argument is a bit messed up because imagine this: there’s a group of American Indians at your doorstep expressing their grievances about name. You tell them, ” Come back when you fix your suicide rates. Don’t you have anything better to do?” To this, Harjo would respond with, “I and other Native American parties to our lawsuit have worked very hard to achieve the American Indian Health Care Improvement Act and to gain clinics and hospitals in Indian country. What have you done to help our health conditions?” And “Most of the people who ask that question don’t do anything about our big issues. The Native American parties to our lawsuit are the ones who are doing something about the big issues, and this is one of them, because it is contextual, atmospheric — it affects federal Indian law because, for one thing, policymakers don’t make good policy for cartoons or for people who are used for others’ sport.” Sherman Alexie, an American Indian writer has also said in an interview, “Most, you know, at least half the country thinks the mascot issue is insignificant. But I think it’s indicative of the ways in which Indians have no cultural power. We’re still placed in the past. So we’re either in the past or we’re only viewed through casinos.” (http://truth-out.org/video/item/15773-sherman-alexie-on-living-outside-cultural-borders)
The third frequent argument is “But what about the other teams? By the logic they’re being racist too.”YES. Those names are racist too! The amount of racist team names and mascots just shows how much we’ve seem to have forgotten that American Indians are a race of people, not some character. “If you think this name’s offensive you should complain about Atlanta, Kansas City, or Cleveland.” Yes I agree and I don’t see how this is an argument against changing the DC name.
I’ve also seen arguments that the name is okay because there are American Indian school teams that use some sort of Indian mascot.I think these people also believe that white people not being allowed to say the n-word is a double standard. To me, it’s a similar line of logic. Google is a friend.
Anyways, I used to think that the team name was okay too. I think what changed my opinion wasn’t the name itself but the fact that some fans have shown themselves to be incredibly racist. Yes a team name may be honoring American Indians. However, if you ever go to a sporting event for teams with these sorts of names, fans get dressed up in feathers and headdresses. They paint their faces with “war paint” and do weird “tribal” cheers. That’s when things gets offensive. The opposing side coming up with “creative” chants that are enthusiastically genocidal. That’s when it gets racist. Even if we agree to disagree about the name itself, can we agree that it provides an excuse and a space for sports fans to be ignorant and offensive? It’s embarrassing that as the nation’s capital we host this sort of behavior.”
Want to share your opinions? Comment on this article and let us know how you feel!
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