The Washington WHATS?

Jake Fromm
CAPS Blog 3

    Americans religiously tune in to network channels every Thursday, Sunday and Monday to root for their favorite football team.  Between all of the unbelievable passes, clutch catches, and bone crushing hits, one would think that a detail as small as a mascot would not become the focal point of a huge national controversy, right?  After all, the mascots are just the cartoony, plush figures that dance around on the sidelines.  However, in the past few months, the a Washington based football team has found itself in hot water over its name and mascot, the Redskins.  The Native American community has become outraged with the team’s name, and has demanded for it to be changed.  However, a poll has revealed that 79 percent of Americans do not see a problem with the name.  When definition of the word “Redskin” is literally “A disparaging term for a Native American, why has this team’s name not already been changed in the almost eighty years that the team has been a part of the National Football League?

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/mike-freeman/22321706/redskins-not-offensive-to-you-how-about-the-washington-nwords

    The Washington Redskins and their inappropriate team name is a great example of the co-cultural communication processes and the power of labels.  While the majority of the Native American community is outraged by the name of the team, they dont have the power to get it changed.  Meanwhile, most Americans don’t know enough about the roots of the word redskin to find it offensive, and simply defend the team’s name with the statement, ”It has always been that way, why change it now?”  Being a part of a co-cultural group like Native Americans can be very difficult in the United States.  The groups that have the most power consciously and unconsciously formulate communication systems that support their view of the world.  The non dominant groups like Native Americans are then forced to live in this system, even though they often have a very different view of the world around them than the dominant group.  While the non dominant group sees the word redskin as an offensive slur directed at Native Americans, the dominant group thinks little about the team name of an organization that has been historically bad at football.

http://archives.library.wisc.edu/uw-archives/exhibits/protests/columbus2.jpg

    Native Americans have historically been a relatively nonassertive cultural group, as assertiveness simply is not as acceptable of a trait in their culture as it is in ours.  As the Native Americans are beginning to be more outspoken and assertive about the Washington Redskins’ team name, it is causing a backlash among the dominant group in the United States.  How could 79 percent of a country stand behind a team whose name is literally a century old racial slur? in my opinion, the only reason that the name has not been changed is because the Native American population is just too small to cause an uproar big enough to wake up the majority of the US.  The Native American culture has consistantly been kicked under the rug and pushed back and ignored in the past, and I think that this is just another example of our self reference criterion keeping us as a dominant group from seeing how we have harmed a non dominant group.

References


Case Study: Washington Redskins VS. Native American Activists -         Mascot Controversy . (n.d.). Mascot Controversy. Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://mascotcontroversy.weebly.com/case-study-washington-redskins-vs-native-american-activists.html

Freeman, M. (n.d.). Redskins not offensive to you? How about the Washington N-Words? - CBSSports.com . CBSSports.com. Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/mike-freeman/22321706/redskins-not-offensive-to-you-how-about-the-washington-nwords

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Treadway, D. (2013, May 3). Dan Treadway: To the 79 Percent of People Who Don't Think the Washington Redskins Should Change Their Name. The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-treadway/redskins-name-change_b_3210179.html