FCC may ban Redskins nickname from TV

[flex wood]

I actually agree with jval on this one.

There is so much white guilt in this shit. It just comes off as a bunch of white people being offended by something that COULD offend a minority group and the people need to help fix it because these minorities are to stupid to think for themselves so they stand up for them. Instead of allowing them to speak they are actually oppressing them by speaking for them.

I do understand how some natives could be offended by the mascot but it isn't my place to be outraged whatsoever. Honestly what should be done is the tribes on the reservations should vote on if they find the team offensive, and if they do they should actually talk to the league and the team owners about this instead of this backwards shit that is going on.

[dsheinem]

Show me where Redskin is a historically established slur. Not a single message board or anything else recognizes it as a slur, there's nothing out there to say it's always been a slur.

OMG

NOT A SINGLE MESSAGEBOARD

WUT WUT TROOF



…

I hate the name and Snyder is an asshole. We've talked about this already quite a bit.

That said, the FCC can fuck off. Free speech means people should be able to say whatever they want on TV. This would not be a productive answer to this problem, and I think this story has more to do with political rage-baiting than it does with anything that is seriously being considered as a policy.

[flex wood]

I just went through that thread a bit. I wish I hadn't.

I feel like this really shouldn't be needed to be said native American is an offensive term.

After going through that thread again I find this whole changing of the name more stupid than before. It's a sports team who cares? Why use the fcc to change this when there are way bigger and even more offensive things still being pushed to this day by the government. Why not take Andrew Jackson's face off of the twenty and demolish mt Rushmore instead? I mean both of those may as well be spitting on the heritage of an indigenous people.

[jvalentine98]

^^^ Like I said, people find reasons to be offended. They get upset. The Washington Redskins are one of the most storied teams in the NFL, they won several Super Bowls, have legendary players. Not one player from ALL those years has come out and said they felt the name was racist. The NFL accepted the name to begin with and nothing has changed, except people need something to gripe about.

Black people can be called black,white people can be called white, but Indians can't be called red? What's the difference?

I never thought the world get this serious and sensitive about things. It's ok to show black women being degraded in rap videos, but the FCC wants to ban "Redskin"?

[jvalentine98]

To put this in larger terms, we are slowly becoming Russia or China. Where is the limit to what the government can control? What's next...the thoughts we don't share?

[pepharytheworm]

Do you really think people just come up with stuff to gripe about and not that some people realized they were ignorant on some matters and then formed a new opinion based on their new perspective?

I have to ask where do you come up with some of the stuff you say like

Not a single message board or anything else recognizes it as a slur, there's nothing out there to say it's always been a slur.

and

Black people can be called black,white people can be called white, but Indians can't be called red?

and then there is

What about the Chicago Blackhawks? I mean look at all the black people that live in Chicago! AND it insults Indians, supposedly.

Do you form these ideas on your own or are you getting them from somewhere/someone? Genuine question by the way. Also do you have a problem with referring to "Indians" as Native Americans?

[oxymoron]

That said, the FCC can fuck off. Free speech means people should be able to say whatever they want on TV.

Then why aren't people allowed to swear on TV?

Btw Val, there's a edit button for a reason.

[ZeroAX]

Do you form these ideas on your own or are you getting them from somewhere/someone? Genuine question by the way. Also do you have a problem with referring to "Indians" as Native Americans?

Probably he hates immigrants and calling them Native Americans makes him feel like an immigrant too?


I don't know about this. While I think history of the US and race relations is way too complex to brush off anything like this and I have read reports online of Indians/Native Americans (funny story, we don't have a word/phrase for Native Americans in Greek, but Indians (from America) is very different from the word Indians (from India)) being offended by this, but I don't see how this TV ban is anywhere near the correct way to fix that.

To put this in larger terms, we are slowly becoming Russia or China. Where is the limit to what the government can control? What's next...the thoughts we don't share?

hm, you don't seem to complain about the NSA spying scandal or the violation of freedoms since 11th September, so I'm going to haaaaaaaaazard a guess that this is more about your political beliefs being "hating everything the other side stands for".

[TSTR]

It should be noted that there is a sizeable amount of the indigenous population that prefers the term "American Indian."

[dsheinem]

That said, the FCC can fuck off. Free speech means people should be able to say whatever they want on TV.

Then why aren't people allowed to swear on TV?

They are, although there are rules about the context in which they can do so (e.g. only with parental advisory statements, pay vs free TV, etc.). I'm of the opinion that the FCC already has far too much overreach in terms of regulating content/language on TV so any time the idea of "banning a word" comes up my hackles get raised.

Here's a good article that does the important work of summarizing the history of the term: http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_vall ... ectly.html

Note that the term has not ALWAYS been seen as racist, but that it OFTEN has. Note also that there are are plenty of Native American groups that have formally objected to the name. From a Washington Post article:

In point of fact, a wide variety of Native American groups and tribes have come out against the name, including the National Congress of American Indians, the United South and Eastern Tribes, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, the Gun Lake Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Menominee Tribe of Indians, the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, the Oneida Indian Nation, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Sault St. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, and so on

A lot of these groups have been involved in marches in and around Redskins away games. For example, here was one last year in Minneapolis that had about 800 people.

To me, it boils down to the idea that there's clearly a LOT of indigenous people (and also a lot of non-indigenous people) who find the word to be offensive and who believe it perpetuates the same kinds of negative beliefs about Native Americans that have for centuries decimated and ghettoized their people and their culture. Because of this, I think that the moral thing to do would be for Snyder to change the name of the team to something that isn't considered a harmful slur by a demonstrable portion of those it claims to represent. But he won't, and he won't because of money. So instead he'll continue to float out these statements that try and establish his own moral high ground on the issue, even though there aren't any logically sound or well-supported arguments grounding them.

I believe it will take a lot of external pressure (more than has been exerted so far) and a lot of changed hearts and minds amongst Redskins fans (something that will take time) before Snyder would change the name. It's a shame that the expressed hurt of much of the Native American population isn't sufficient reason for him to change his mind, but the reality is that they don't represent a significant economic threat to the name at this point and so he doesn't care.