Sportscaster Bob Costas threw fuel on the fire that has been simmering for years over calls by the Oneida Indians (Native Americans) for Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, to change the team’s nickname.
Here, in part, is what he said on Sunday during halftime of NBC’s very popular Sunday Night Football:
Objections to names like ‘Braves,’ ‘Chiefs,’ ‘Warriors,’ and the like strike many of us as political correctness run amok. These nicknames honor, rather than demean. They are pretty much the same as ‘Vikings,’ ‘Patriots,’ or even ‘Cowboys…’
Ask yourself what the equivalent would be, if directed toward African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, or members of any other ethnic group.
When considered that way, ‘Redskins’ can’t possibly honor a heritage, or noble character trait, nor can it possibly be considered a neutral term; it’s an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent.
(NBC Sports, October 13, 2013)
Indeed, can you imagine an NFL team today being called the Washington Niggers; or, given Snyder’s Jewish heritage, the Washington Hymies…?
Frankly, I could not agree with Costas more.
And, despite vowing to “never change the name of the team” – as Snyder is quoted saying in the May 10, 2013 edition of USA Today, I bet it’s only a matter of time before political and commercial pressure force him to do so.
Clearly Whites did not enslave Native Americans the way they did Black Africans. But their genocidal killing of Native Americans and confiscatory plundering of their lands were arguably far worse. And granting them licenses to operate casinos on the little reservations Whites deigned to leave them hardly compensates for all that.
Therefore, the least Whites can do today is show them the same politically correct respect they show Blacks, no? Which is why it’s also only a matter of time before the Cleveland Indians (are forced to) drop the racial slur from their name too.
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