A new poll found that the overwhelming majority of Native Americans are not bothered by the Washington Redskins’ nickname, which has been the source of controversy and the focus of an effort by activists to get the name changed.
ESPN reports that the poll by The Washington Post poll found that 90% of Native Americans aren’t offended by the nickname and most consider the issue to be unimportant.
“The Post polled 504 people who identify primarily as Native American from across the country, including those who lived on reservations and those who were not part of a tribe,” ESPN reports. “The general population appears to care more about the name than Native Americans. A 2014 ESPN poll found that 23 percent of the population favored a name change.”
In the Post poll, 78% of respondents said the issue of the Redskins name is either “not too” or “not at all” important.
Activists who are fighting to get the team’s name changed rejected the survey results and vowed to continue their efforts.
In a statement released by Change the Mascot, National Congress of American Indians executive director Jackie Pata and Oneida Nation representative Ray Halbritter said: “The results of this poll confirm a reality that is encouraging but hardly surprising: Native Americans are resilient and have not allowed the NFL’s decades-long denigration of us to define our own self-image. However, that proud resilience does not give the NFL a license to continue marketing, promoting, and profiting off of a dictionary-defined racial slur — one that tells people outside of our community to view us as mascots.”
The Politically Correct Police runamuck as it turns out for no reason. It may not be clear to the white man political police, but everyone knows these native American references are not to demean, no matter how ham handed, they are to honor and remind us of the importance our native American people and their contributions. At least native American’s get it. Here’s the ultimate example of respectfully honoring our native brothers and sisters and keeping their contributions and historical importance fresh in our collective contemporary memories, the University of Illinois Chief Illiniwek. When the U of I Marching Band began the drumming of Chiefs dance music at every major event, 10’s of thousands of spectators and participants emotionally rose in the stadium or Assembly Hall, many with a tear in their eye, to yell, clap, and honor the symbol of the origin of the State name, Illinois, and it’s native American importance. But the Chief was band in 2007 in the misguided name of NCAA Political Correctness. A loss for the native Illinois and we who honor them. Hail to the Chief !
Are you telling us that only after YEARS of BS about the name, someone FINALLY asked Indians about the name? And they didn’t care? So, will people finally shut up about something so world-shakingly-monumental as a football team’s name?
Why am I not surprised?