*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Mordhaus.

'bout time.

Let's get this done.

When I was driving across a reservation out west, the Indian high school sports team was called the Redskins, so...nice sentiment, but BS.

here's a link: http://www.rmusd.net/

It is true that native Americans are as diverse as white Americans in their opinions. There are many many reservations here in the Pacific Northwest. One of the reasons it took so long to finally abandon "Redskins" in our high school is that there were local tribe members who didn't have a problem with it.

If the native tribes weren't monolithic in their response, why should the white people abandon their "heritage"?

I do wonder if we can hear the final sentence of this differently. It may be that some natives are fine with their local high school mascot, for the same reason our local high was -- it is tradition.

But what the vid says is -- we don't call OURSELVES that. And that may be a monolithic truth.

Probably not, though. Humans can be pesky to paint as black or white ... or red.

Enough native Americans are pissed about it. We don't need 100% agreement.

@lantern53

http://www.buzzfeed.com/joeflood/how-the-redskins-debate-goes-over-on-an-actual-indian-reserv

This says it better.

Quote:
People, Native American people in particular, in my limited experience, have the ability to ignore all manner of historical insults — like the Medals of Honor still on record for the soldiers who perpetrated the Wounded Knee Massacre, or the faces of U.S. presidents carved into a site the U.S. government took through warfare, forced starvation, and treaty violations. That resiliency, though, seems a pretty poor excuse for heaping on much smaller insults — like “Redskins” — and justifying them with “See? They’re cool with it.”

Two things...some Indians call themselves redskins.

Calling a major sports team 'Redskins' is not an insult, it's a compliment.

Now, some Indians don't like it, but if you're looking to not offend anyone...good luck with that.

Wow, America is... different from Canada in this regard. You don't call anybody an Indian up here unless they are from India. The whole insistence on westerners to continually, and incorrectly, refer to the people originally here as Indians long after confirming this certainly wasn't India is considered racist in Canada. You want to get in trouble fast, walk onto a reserve and start referring to people as Indians rather than Native or Aboriginal.

What's wrong with calling someone Negro? It used to be okay, no one was offended.
Then someone decided they were offended and it changed to 'black'. Then someone decided that was offensive, so now's it something else.
None of these 'African-americans' are from Africa. But progressives delight in dividing people. How about we call Indians 'Americans'?
Oh wait...some Indians might be offended.

It's the panty-knotted cunts that piss us off the MOST! Self-important, self-indulgent, my-shit-never-stinks gimps.... "On the contrary, it smells like flowers and here's my circular, Socratic polemic to explain just how fucked you are compared to me."

Get a fucking room. Oh wait, you have one here!

FUCK YOU!

Only retarded white people (and perhaps a few uptight Canadians) have a problem with the word Negro, and they invented it!

First Nation. The Canadians got it right.

Ehhh, you wouldn't keep thinking that if you saw how we treated them.

The best summary I can think of is, when Marlon Brando went to Ottawa to see if he could get funding from the Canadian gov't, for a movie about Native Americans. Trudeau said, "The only difference between your aboriginal peoples and our aboriginals peoples is, you shot and burned yours, we poisoned and starved ours."

It's still a damn mess on most reservations you walk onto. =(

My high school mascot growing up was the "Grand River Renegade"

Effectively native chief. When I was in my third year of high school, there was talk about changing it to something else because it was deemed offensive.

I honestly, to this day, can't understand why that was offensive. The reason we had a native renegade as our mascot? Because it was freaking badass! It wasn't mocking the first nationers in any way, shape, or form. If anything, in my mind, it was actually a way of showing support, going "Dude, your ancestors were awesome enough that we're making it our mascot."

Now, the term redskin, yeah, I can see that as offensive, it does seem to fall under the racial slur side of things. But just because that's what the mascot of the team is, it doesn't specifically mean anything disrespectful to whatever it's representing (although again, granted, the name may need a change.)

what seems weird about the usa as an outsider is how you are american if you are caucasian but if you are not then you are a hyphenated american. african-american, native american. Maybe its because I come from a country with the population of one of your states and the fact that we got rid of racist logos decades ago (see gollywogs) but sometimes you guys seem a little behind the times...not that I'm from a utopia or anything.

Having a national football team call Red Skins is the least of Indian problems.

@bobknight33, so you did read that article I linked!!!! That is EXACTLY what the native Americans on the rez say!

Who knew that you, of all people, would be sympatico with the oppressed!

That may true for some areas, but not all of them.
In fact, it depends on the Chief and how they lead their people.
Yes, they have social issues, and so do we off the reserves, but they are self governing and work every day to provide services for those in need. In my area, we have a great partnership with the First Nations. They are a vital part of our city.
The place where I see issues is when the government uses land, Such as with the NorthWestern Pipeline, and the First Nations are the first to stand up in defiance in defense of our environment -- I applaud them for that. Not to mention that the Gov. will change treaty laws at random to suit their needs. But that's Big Business, and they screw everyone, not just treaty law.

Fact, I have been on some amazing Haida reservations out west, I guess I've been on too many Ontario ones where it's bad. No support from the gov't, and ignored by everyone else. Hell, the Red Cross had to come in and help people out at one point.

Very true though, not all reserves are terrible.

I guess Indians can call themselves redskins, but whites can't.

Just as blacks can call themselves 'niggas' but white people can't.

I forget the name, but one of our Native Chiefs here in Canada goes further. He declares that wasn't even the worst of it. The worst thing that Canada did to Aboriginal peoples was welfare. What violence and aggression couldn't destroy in generations, welfare was able to destroy in one. Of all the destructive things the Canadian Aboriginal reserve system has done, the worst imho is the impact it(inadvertently?) had on the self reliance of people living on reserve. We now have a culture on far too many reserves in Canada where working really, really hard to get ahead yields you absolutely ZERO better results than those drinking and partying 24/7. It's tragic, and all the worse for the fact both aboriginal and non-aboriginals seem completely paralyzed in trying to address it.

I think the reason "we do that", is because such a large proportion of our resident's roots in the United States go back no more than 100 years, and there are SO MANY different cultures and ethnicities you can encounter, especially in Urban areas. Oftentimes an ethnicity or culture will live in a specific town or part of a city and will preserve much of their culture and tradition. I guess we could pretend like everyone is the same, but there ARE differences in culture and tradition, and i think we only use those terms when we are acknowledging/talking about those things. I don't know how that differs from where you are from, but maybe the difference for us is the sheer size of the country and its diversity means we have much larger clusters of people with a shared or common foreign ancestry and so they get more attention?

However, I don't think "African American" or "Hispanic American" are used as commonly as you think, aside from the news where topics like racism and affirmative action get more exposure, and a way to delineate differences is necessary. Or when we want to figure what kind of food to eat for dinner

Seems like the ad will actually air during the NBA finals in selected markets.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11061396/opponents-run-anti-washington-redskins-ad-nba-finals