Washington Redskins Changed Their Name; Indians Aren't Oppressed Anymore

 

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1078571919/washington-commanders-name-change-native-americans

When the Washington Commanders announced their official name change this past week, it brought a sense of closure to a dark chapter for many Native Americans.

The NFL franchise unveiled its new name, logo and uniforms on Wednesday, more than 18 months after it dropped its former name of 87 years. The "Washington Redskins," as the team was formerly known, is offensive to many Indigenous people who viewed the name and branding as both a slur and a disparaging stereotype grounded in America's history of violence against Native peoples.

Suzan Harjo, a 76-year-old advocate central to the fight to change the team's name, called the change "a huge step forward."

"A lot of people now get it," she said. "That it's not all right to use disparaging terms, derogatory names, slurs, images, behaviors."

In her experience, the "R-word," as Harjo calls it, is inseparable from harmful, racist attitudes that have translated into "emotional and physical violence" against Native Americans.

"If it's permissible to say such things to us, such names, then it is permissible to do anything to us," she said.

"I had lots of things in my personal life using that word," said Harjo, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. "When I was a girl, you barely could make it through your young life without getting attacked by a bunch of white people — whether they were boys or girls or men or women. And they would always go to that word."

The origin of the term has long been debated by linguists and historians. Some say "redskin" didn't start out as an insult. But to many Native Americans, Harjo among them, the word refers to the grotesque act of hunting down and skinning their ancestors' scalps for cash bounties. 

NPR provides absolutely zero intellectual stimulation in their articles. 

When was the last time you read an NPR article and was like, "that's interesting"? It's all just a bunch of emotional jibberish by anti-Whites whose only contribution to society is that they're anti-White. 

Think about that for a second: NPR wants to write a story about you because you're anti-White living in an anti-White society and your only contribution to the anti-White society is that you're anti-White.

To personify that, imagine being a 76-year-old woman whose life is so meaningless that she scapegoats an entire race for her personal lack of achievement in order to feel good about herself. 

What does that say about your life when your crowning achievement is guilting a sportsball team into changing their name on the premise that it personally offends you? 

Here's a weird analogy to better understand the weirdness of neo-liberalism: a dumpster diver complains that people don't have good enough garbage, so they become anti-garbage and threaten to boycott dumpster diving. As a result, a few people feel sorry for them and elect to trash a few things out of pity that they might have previously donated to charity. The dumpster diver considers that an accomplishment and takes pride in it. 

I can remember watching football growing up. I specifically recall watching the 1983 Super Bowl. It was the Redskins vs Raiders. I didn't know what a Raider, or a Redskin was. I don't think anyone else did either. We had favorite teams and players. If people mocked other team's mascots it was probably cause their team sucked, although I don't ever remember hearing anything like that.

This highlights the self-grandiosity of people like the 76-year-old Indian lady. They think that White people just sit around their homes and think about calling other races names. Normal White folks are indifferent to non-Whites for the most part. This is probably why they whine so much. They're like babies who want the attention of White people, and when they don't get it they throw a tantrum that sites like NPR provide a bully pulpit for.

I've never once heard anyone call an Indian a "redskin" in a derogatory way (or anyway, for that matter). And before you say, "that's because you're not a 'redskin,'" I did spend a good majority of my life living in Oklahoma, where pretty much everyone claims to be part Indian. 

I did have a buddy who was half Indian who told me the epithet for Indians was "wagon burners," but I never heard anyone but him use it. And I think he just thought it was funny.

Finally, everyone knows who was scalping who back in the cowboy and indians battles. This is just another example of the unethical journalism and anti-White bias presented on a regular basis by NPR.