Yeah, logos are one thing, but I bet half the people who are "outraged" by these things have never watched a game. They are offended by what they hear, not by what they see. Braves isn't really an offensive term. At least Bob Costas hasn't told me to be offended by it yet. Mike Tirico going with the "The Washingtons" line instead of calling them by their name was comical.
For sure, Braves isn't an offensive term. I was wondering more about the logo, since it's comical and doesn't portray Native Americans in a noble light as the Redskins' is meant to. I still can't find that quote by the Native American I referenced a few posts back, but I found another one that basically says what I was trying to bring out. Not that I agree with it, though...
Not to make light of the situation, but using that logic, should I then feel offended by the Houston Texans, since that argument is cut from the same cloth? Being born and raised in Texas, the only reason why I feel low self-esteem is because the Texans are genuinely bad, and have been for the vast majority of their history.
When does the word "redskin" show up in media being described as racist/offensive? Is this a more recent phenomenon? Before AIM in the late 60's?
Full disclosure: I still haven't read the origin links pertaining to the noble roots of the word redskin. Also, I still haven't tried to find my class notes and books from 15 years ago (which are at my parents house anyways). But here is something: Another: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/08/4680245/sonic-apologizes-for-scalp-the.html Here's a book about the debate from 2001 (tl;dr) that google schoolar has entirely free online: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en...Mg0c6r97nEw#v=onepage&q=redskin scalp&f=false I'm not sure if I truly care enough to come up w/ a conclusive idea on the origins. I do think it's reasonable enough to see that evidence points to an elongated period of time where people in this country used Redskin in a derogatory manner. And also, this country's government used to pay its citizens for killing redskins. It's reasonable for some Native Americans to be offended. Let's see how it goes. Snyder grew up loving the term and I believe he doesn't mean to offend at all. He's wrong, but he also has a lot of money. If he's positive PR campaign can change enough minds then maybe he'll win in the long run...but he's been a terrible PR guy.
Braves, Chiefs etc. are prideful names that honor native americans and should not be seen as offensive in my opinion. The Indians on the other hand has always been a negative to me because Native Americans are not Indians!
If they really wanted to make sure the name wasn't offensive, they would take any reference to Washington DC out of the name.
Synder should just move the team to Alabama and change the name -- The Birmingham Rednecks -- PROBLEM SOLVED.
As a Dallas Cowboy fan my hatred of the Redskins goes back decades. That being said, I fully support Dan Snyder in not caving in to this politically correct BS. This whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. I hope Snyder never caves in.
For someone who professes to be such a devout Christian, you sure have a hard time empathizing in this situation. Answer this: what makes this name different? Would you gladly and without hesitating walk up to a Native American man and say "Hey, redskin!" with a smile on your face? Can you not ignore that history of the team's name and the context of Native American iconography in America? This is from a different team, but one with a less, um, "descriptive" name than Washington's. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Here's one of those times when the phrase "Only in Cleveland" is actually an understatement. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Cleveland&src=hash">#Cleveland</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Indians&src=hash">#Indians</a> <a href="http://t.co/rFlzrqNz4q">pic.twitter.com/rFlzrqNz4q</a></p>— Cleveland Frowns (@ClevelandFrowns) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClevelandFrowns/statuses/452165322519216128">April 4, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Being a Christian has little to do with political correctness. People can only be offended if they let things offend them. I have been called all sorts of things in my life that some people would call offensive and have not let a single one of them bother me. Have you ever heard the phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"? Besides, this is mostly being driven by a few liberals that aren't even Native Americans (or whatever the politically correct term is today). I do not support faux outrage. This was NEVER an issue before political correctness unfortunately found it's way into the world. I personally love the quote by a Texas A&M student on the definition of political correctness:
The Washington Biblethumpers. The Washington Jesusfreaks. The Washington Christ-was-a-false-prophets. I'm sure our buddy cml750 would be cool with such names.