Argumentative Essays: Racial Sports Team Names

In 1966 the professional football team, the Washington Redskins, which has represented the Washington, DC area in the National Football League since the 1930’s applied to have their team’s name registered as a trademark as reported by Peirano (2013). Peirano (2013) went on to report that at that time and even after, the name was registered, Native Americans and other activists seem to not show any concern about the team’s choice for a name. In later years, the term “redskin” was recorded in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and defined as meaning American Indian with a notice that the term is usually offensive according to Peirano (2013). However, according to Peirano (2013), the football team’s owner, Dan Snyder, claims that the name is not

Watching football is awesome. You get to hang out with friends and family, eating chips and drinking sodas. It was Columbas weekend and the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins were playing. During the game, native americans were angry and wanted to stop the game, but it didn’t. Native americans, later, were protesting to change the name because it is offensive to them. Some say that the team should change the name, while others say that they shouldn’t. The team's own says no, some of the fans says no, Dan Snyder says no, and Jason Begay says no. If people looked at this not as something atrocious, but as something positive, there wouldn’t be a problem.

The Cleveland Indians decided they are going to get rid of Chief Wahoo logo next year (Waldstein, 2018). Many Native Americans are happy, while others are not bothered with the decision. It may be a win for Native Americans for baseball, but for football not so much. Native Americans have questioned the use of the name Washington Redskins since the 1960’s. Yet, it didn’t receive national attention until the 1990’s. There have been many cases in which the Redskins logo was fought to remove the trademark owned by the Pro-Football Inc. In one landmark case that stood out to me was Pro-Football Inc vs Harjo.

The Change the Mascot campaign has made a website for people to see how big of topic this is to them. Also, on their website they’ve put out many other Native American tribes that support the changing of the name, ways to take action and even ways to contact them. They have a tab that shows the history of progress that shows that many team’s names and mascots have been changed from a racial Native American term to a more laid back name or mascot. They believe that the name and mascot should and will be changed to create more of non-racial effect among the Washington Redskins fans and community. Also, the Change the Mascot organization has put together a way to for non-Native American people to show their support by using the tag #ProudToBe Standing With #NotYourMascot on social media. Many native american tribes have actually sent out letters to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about changing the Washington Redskins name, logo and mascot. This is a national movement of Americans across the country, both Native and non-Native alike, who are standing against racism and strongly encouraging a

One reading from Fivethirtyeight debates the argument to change the Native American mascot names. This is a valid argument because for example the name redskins, the name of the NFL football team located in Washington D.C, can be seen and viewed as disparaging to native americans. Naming teams and especially professional teams after native american tribes can become very controversial. (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2128-native-american-mascots-people-arent-talking-about/)

Nowadays we do not see the Indians or Redskins as a negative way of describing a race or culture. We see them as professional teams that play hard and get our spirits up. Out of all teams, I would say that the Redskins is probably the most racist of all names because of the term it was used years ago. I would change the name to something more honorable towards Native Americans. Braves is actually more honorable than Redskins because they are identifying Native Americans as Brave rather than a negative stereotype of a name. The team name, Redskins, has actually received backlash for many years because it was seen as insulting and offensive to people of Native American culture. After many polls of whether to keep the name or not, 83 percent of people chose to keep the name as it was not used as racial slur. At this point, the team names are not meant as a racial slur so there shouldn't be any

“The Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at California State University in San Bernardino surveyed 400 individuals, 98 of them Native Americans, and found that 67 percent of Native Americans agreed the "Redskins team name is a racial or racist word and symbol."” (Steele). Some mascots are offensive and racist to certain cultures and races. In, 2005, the NCAA banned schools with Native American mascots from hosting a national championship game (ProQuest Staff). Changing the mascot won’t change the history of the school or team. Some people feel unwelcome because of certain mascots. Some mascots should be banned because they are stereotypical, dishonor cultures, and are offensive.

The year is 1991.  The Atlanta Braves had just completed their first trip to the Fall Classic in four decades, and the Washington Redskins were undefeated, well on their way to their third Super Bowl title.  All across the eastern seaboard, sports fans were tasting success - while American Indians were in an uproar.  This year witnessed the peak of the protests over the use of mascots with American Indian themes.  With two of the major professional sports teams in question making front-page news across the country, many of us heard American Indians' complaints for the first time.  Suddenly, thanks to the cries of thousands of demonstrators, the names of many Americans' favorite teams had become synonymous with "nigger."

Native american teams have been and continue to be some of the most beloved and heralded teams in all of sports. The Washington Redskins, Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida State Seminoles all have sports teams with fan bases that most other teams could only dream about. People continue to fill the stands no matter what their record because the love for these teams. The Redskins fans sing “Hail the Redskins” at home game. I could see the name Redskins or Redmen being offensive if the actions behind it were a derogatory, but the fact that people embrace the names, pass on their love for the team to their children and hopefully teach them the history of the native american people make it the exact opposite. The use of these names might be the

“Redskin” is a racial slur and the use of the word is one of the worst examples of a sport team having a offensive name. Nevertheless, “nearly four in five Americans” don’t think a name change for the team should be required (ap-gfkpoll.com). This lack of consensus about the fact that sports teams shouldn’t be racially insensitive reveals a larger epidemic. The name of these sports teams become so beloved to some people that they will not be able to change unless the fans realize that the names, logos and racism present in the teams’ impotence to modify these aspects are wrong. Fans need to learn to separate the racism of the monikers from their support of the

History of Native American names in the sports world were originally established to show disrespect, but today represent honor and pride. These “offensive” names came into a new era and were established across the states. In the beginning of this trend Indians had no say over what was offensive and where they stood politically. Daniel Snyder says, “My team and fans have always believed our name represents honor, respect and pride.” Law professors agreed with Snyder and said they shall keep their name. USA Today Sports said, “it was bad as a Native American life as it had ever been during the time of reservation establishment.” Populations had collapsed from several million to 250,000 from reservation confinement and merges made by the federal government. Since the name fiasco laws have been put in place to civilize Indians. These laws were passed by bureaucrats creating tutelage for

     Many people do not consider themselves supporting Native American mascots that depict them in a bad manner. But when people walk around with a Atlanta Braves shirt on with a Indian with a tomahawk in his hand, it is degrading to the Indians. It is stereotyping them. School mascots and Sports team’s mascots are named after groups of people for no reason known. Notre Dame was founded by Irish Catholics, but their sports team was named the Fighting Irish. The name Fighting Irish has nothing to do with the Irish Catholics, it depicts them in a wrong way.(Price, 3). Team names can be changed to similar names that do not depict certain groups of people. Like the Redskins can be called the Red Hawks or the

The majority culture defends use of the Native Americans symbols in sports and many are confused by the objections raised by Native Americans. “Team Names represent something positive to the fans, People don’t name teams after things they hate.” (40 What’s in a Team Name, Banks). For example, the University of Georgia selected the “The Georgia Bulldogs as their Mascot.”(What’s in a Team Name). Their attributes are “toughness...and integrity”(What’s in a Team Name) to their mascot. Teams also look

Currently in the NFL, the Washington Redskins are being faced with a staggering controversy: Should they change they change their mascot as a result of Native Americans viewing it is a racial discriminatory (Angle 2016)? Dating back to 1933, when the Washington NFL team abandoned the original title of “Braves” and adopted “Redskins,” the debate has since been longstanding (Hylton 2014). Native Americans are challenging the team to rid them, along with all team mascot names relating to their culture countrywide, of their title, but the mascot names have no negative connotation and should not be protested against. The controversy relates back to the 1900s when Native Americans began to feel oppressed and teams began using their titles as mascot (Brady 2016).

The controversy over the naming of sports teams after ethnic groups has been boiling since the mid-twentieth century. Sports teams in America, ranging from Pee-wee leagues, high schools, and colleges to Professional sports, have used any enumeration of nick names and mascots by which to represent their team with pride and sometimes even comedy. However, the lines of political correctness have been greatly and maybe even intentionally blurred in terms of the use of specific ethnic groups within team names and the use of the stereotypical image of those teams’ caricatures, the native-American in particular. Of the four major professional sports team franchises included in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL that do possess ethnic monikers, only two are of Caucasoid based ethnicity, whereas the other 5 are direct references to Native American ethnicity or stereotypes