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Brothers of Briar

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Rick Reilly":gh805b2s said:
I guess this is where I'm supposed to fall in line and do what every other American sports writer is doing. I'm supposed to swear I won't ever write the words "Washington Redskins" anymore because it's racist and offensive and a slap in the face to all Native Americans who ever lived. Maybe it is.

I just don't quite know how to tell my father-in-law, a Blackfeet Indian. He owns a steak restaurant on the reservation near Browning, Mont. He has a hard time seeing the slap-in-the-face part.

"The whole issue is so silly to me," says Bob Burns, my wife's father and a bundle holder in the Blackfeet tribe. "The name just doesn't bother me much. It's an issue that shouldn't be an issue, not with all the problems we've got in this country."

And I definitely don't know how I'll tell the athletes at Wellpinit (Wash.) High School -- where the student body is 91.2 percent Native American -- that the "Redskins" name they wear proudly across their chests is insulting them. Because they have no idea.

"I've talked to our students, our parents and our community about this and nobody finds any offense at all in it," says Tim Ames, the superintendent of Wellpinit schools. "'Redskins' is not an insult to our kids. 'Wagon burners' is an insult. 'Prairie n-----s' is an insult. Those are very upsetting to our kids. But 'Redskins' is an honorable name we wear with pride. … In fact, I'd like to see somebody come up here and try to change it."

Boy, you try to help some people …

And it's not going to be easy telling the Kingston (Okla.) High School (57.7 percent Native American) Redskins that the name they've worn on their uniforms for 104 years has been a joke on them this whole time. Because they wear it with honor.

"We have two great tribes here," says Kingston assistant school superintendent Ron Whipkey, "the Chicasaw and the Choctaw. And not one member of those tribes has ever come to me or our school with a complaint. It is a prideful thing to them."

"It's a name that honors the people," says Kingston English teacher Brett Hayes, who is Choctaw. "The word 'Oklahoma' itself is Choctaw for 'red people.' The students here don't want it changed. To them, it seems like it's just people who have no connection with the Native American culture, people out there trying to draw attention to themselves.

"My kids are really afraid we're going to lose the Redskin name. They say to me, 'They're not going to take it from us, are they, Dad?'"

Too late. White America has spoken. You aren't offended, so we'll be offended for you.

Same story with the Red Mesa (Ariz.) High School Redskins. They wear the name with fierce pride. They absolutely don't see it as an insult. But what do they know? The student body is only 99.3 percent Native American.

And even though an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll found that 90 percent of Native Americans were not offended by the Redskins name, and even though linguists say the "redskins" word was first used by Native Americans themselves, and even though nobody on the Blackfeet side of my wife's family has ever had someone insult them with the word "redskin," it doesn't matter. There's no stopping a wave of PC-ness when it gets rolling.

I mean, when media stars like USA Today's Christine Brennan, a white woman from Ohio, and Peter King, a white man from Massachusetts, have jumped on a people's cause, there's no going back.

Besides, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that if "even one person is offended" on this issue, we need to "listen."

One person?

Got it. Guess we need to listen to people who are offended by the Kansas City Chiefs' name, too. That's one that offends my father-in-law. "You see some little guy wearing a headdress made of chicken feathers," he says, "painting his face up, making a mockery of us. I hate that. Those are things you earn."

One person? I know an atheist who is offended by religious names like the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There are people who who don't think Ole Miss should be the Rebels. People who lost family to Hurricanes. There are people who think Wizards promotes paganism. Shall we listen to all of them?

I guess so.

Edmundo Macedo, vice president of ESPN's Stats & Information group, told ESPN ombudsman Robert Lipsyte that the term Redskins is abhorrent. "We would not accept anything similar as a team nickname if it were associated with any other ethnicity or any other race," Macedo said.

Oh, yes, we would.

In fact, ESPN and many other media companies cover the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves without a single searing search of their social conscience.

Doesn't matter. The 81-year-old Washington Redskins name is falling, and everybody better get out of the way. For the majority of Native Americans who don't care, we'll care for them. For the Native Americans who haven't asked for help, we're glad to give it to them.

Trust us. We know what's best. We'll take this away for your own good, and put up barriers that protect you from ever being harmed again.

Kind of like a reservation.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9689220/redskins-name-change-not-easy-sounds

:face:
 
Qui beneficia? The moral high-strutters, the people who wouldn't know a moral concept if it bit 'em in the ass, in this case those of a leftist cast. It makes them feel good about themselves, as liberty slowly becomes a foot-note to history.
 
Sorry you guys - but with all of the problems this country is facing (deficit, wars, gun control, obummer), I think we have bigger fish to fry than worrying about the name of a Football Team.
 
When you allow others to tell you what you can say, you allow them veto power over your inborn sense of reality.

Words are stand-ins for meanings. Outlaw them, and you eliminate communicating them.

Extinguish a word, extinguish an idea.

The systematic, knee-jerk campaign to vilify WASPs as "the cancer of history" and to eliminate the terms they've used -- often for no better reason than that they use them -- ignores one salient point : that the mindset that came up with them expressed the mindset/value system that WORKED.

For everybody.

Whereas the "modern" one works -- look around -- for nobody.

All the old cliches are true.
That's why they're cliches.

:face:
 
wow! My White butt is offended by using Celtics for a team name! DUH! People got a lot to worry over, ain't they! Guess they haven't figured out that these names were used to honor not to dishonor. Hell, Everybody is offended by something. Toughen up America quit being such wussy's oops my feline friends on the porch and in the barn are about to stage a march over that last comment!!!!
 
They ALL know what it means, ya certainly wouldn't call your home team the "Buttheads" (are would you) they just want to stand on there soap box and see if they can control something or someone. And if that don't work they'll try to sue them for a quick Million so they're lazy asses don't have to work. Pure and simple and no doubt about it.
Get your fair share of power today?
 
Here we go again, rantings of old white men. Oh well, guess they need something to do with their time :twisted: 
 
Well, At least ya don't see me suing or complaining to Nabisco because they call some of there products "Crackers" do ya?
 
Just be glad that the teams ain't named for feminine hygiene products! Now them would be some interesting Mascots! who would want to wear the Tampa Bay Tampons Outfit!!!!!:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: 
 
monbla256":g14wwotl said:
Here we go again, rantings of old white men. Oh well, guess they need something to do with their time :twisted: 
Johnny One-Note squeaks again. I think I'm slowly becoming a racist. With a few exceptions, I'm starting to loathe whites, though not for the usual reasons. They have this lemming-like quality that offends.
 
It's all about grandstanding and not at all about personal concern. It's pretty simple, try not offend someone unnecessarily, and try not to go looking for a reason to have been offended. Heaven forbid we should condone tolerance and forgiveness, having a thick skin, and concerning yourself with things that actually matter.
 
There's people who like the structure of being told what to say, what is okay and what is not. There's people who like to be in control of this process. The rest are those who dare to say something about either.

Cartaphilus":s0ehd81y said:
Well, At least ya don't see me suing or complaining to Nabisco because they call some of there products "Crackers" do ya?
And here we have the post that sums up everything intelligently and perfectly.

Anyone pointing out any color of anyone's skin at this point doesn't understand what "racism" really means. People are people.

The end.

8)
 
"You might as well fall flat on your face as to lean too far backwards"
James Thurber
 
Not like I get invited to HOA meetings or ice-cream socials. :lol:

:jealous:
 
Homeowners Associations. The folks other folks pay to tell the paying folks what color roof shingles are allowed. The same folks that wouldn't appreciate a giant water- and wind-powered synthesizer sculpture on the front lawn of my future compound. :tongue:
 
Kyle Weiss said:
There's people who like the structure of being told what to say, what is okay and what is not.   There's people who like to be in control of this process.  The rest are those who dare to say something about either.  

Cartaphilus":ythhq4xt said:
 

Anyone pointing out any color of anyone's skin at this point doesn't understand what "racism" really means.   People are people.

The end.  

8)
Racism? This is the 21st century and that was stuff that was part of the late 20th century not NOW!! With the advent of the "I-Phone" era we've done away with all THAT :twisted: :twisted: 
 
Dix Creek":2pxrl0m5 said:
Just be glad that the teams ain't named for feminine hygiene products!  Now them would be some interesting Mascots! who would want to wear the Tampa Bay Tampons Outfit!!!!!:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: 
Hidden Valley Douche - now available in Italian, French, Ranch, and New Chunky Blue Cheese. :shock:  
 
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