This Week in Off-Topic: Cool It on Native American Racism in Sport

Nope, not worth it

The Washington Redskins were founded by George Preston Marshall, an avowed racist. They were the last team in the National Football League to integrate. One would expect them to cling to a derogatory term for the people that settlers who colonized North America systematically slaughtered and drove into exile from their native lands for longer than necessary, but apparently, in 2013, not only do they still retain the Redskin nickname, the team, some of its fans, and even formerly credible journalists vociferously defend "tradition." Well, racist tradition is racist.

The Redskins name may be the most virulent, but it certainly is not the only one. The Cleveland Indians refer to an erroneous nomenclature for Native Americans. The Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Braves, and Chicago Blackhawks may have team names that are far more innocuous, but their use of Native imagery has led to problematic and stereotypical description of a downtrodden people. The fact that an entire race of people has been marginalized to sell tickets and merchandise for pro sports teams feels dirty, and the fact that marginalization has continued into the 2010s is embarrassing.

Any call for social change will be met with backlash, of course, none more shameful than Rick Reilly cherrypicking certain Natives' opinions supporting his argument while ignoring the vast majority who'd rather not see their ethnicity be reduced to caricature. No matter how much Reilly, Dan Snyder, or any fan of the team says otherwise, the Redskin name, or any imagery used to promote a sports team, is pretty wrong. Imagine if the team names were the "Washington N******" or the "Cleveland Black People." Those names would have been changed right now, even for as much shit as black people still face in this country. The difference is African-Americans in the US right now outnumber the shit out of Native Americans.

But the reason why Natives' numbers have dwindled is that the US Government spent the better part of a century slaughtering their people and shoving the rest of them into reservations, where alcoholism and depression ravage the remaining population. I know we have larger fish to fry than the nickname of a sports team, but hey, just because one issue is worse than another doesn't mean you can't take care of both.

The Chiefs and Blackhawks could be improved without even changing the nicknames. They could abandon the Native imagery and change to something less offensive. Imagine a Chiefs mascot as a policeman. For the other three teams, more drastic changes would be necessary. Change would be shocking at first, but fans would get used to it. The sooner we can get shit like the Tomahawk Chop, Chief Wahoo, fans showing up to the park in redface, and especially the Redskin name out of the national eye, the better off we all can be.

Even though Native Americans aren't making enough noise (by sheer fact that their population has been decimated), the fact that these nicknames and paraphernalia exist point to a systemic problem of racism that has a long way to go before getting fixed. White privilege is more rooted in society than having these sports teams adopting such stereotypes, but taking care of the minor problems would go a long way to helping. The plight of Native Americans is grotesque and maybe the only thing in this country's sad history worse than the slave trade. Taking away the Redskin name and all of its ilk may not come close to making amends for that ghastly treatment, but hey, making those changes might be a small but welcomed start.