We Are Very Proud to Be Called Redskins’
/That’s the headline for an article posted on the Washington Redskins’ Web site on Monday afternoon, apparently in response to recent criticism.
On Thursday in Washington, a symposium at the Smithsonian Institution on racial stereotypes in sports nicknames focused much of its attention on the Redskins. The symposium’s organizers said the Redskins did not respond to an invitation to participate.
“I can only imagine what it would be like to be at a football game at FedEx Field in a crowd of close to 90,000, all screaming at the top of their lungs, when what they are screaming is a racial slur,” said Judith Bartnoff, a deputy presiding judge in District of Columbia Superior Court.
Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Washington-based Morning Star Institute, an advocacy group, said there are some 900 troublesome nicknames and mascots across the country, down from a peak of more than 3,000 when “Little Red” was taken off the field in the early 1970s.
“We consider it racial profiling,” former Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell said. “I think more and more people are recognizing it.”
The Redskins’ Web site noted that “70 different high schools in 25 states are known as the Redskins.”
Redskins.com found that there are almost as many schools using the name Redskins as Cowboys, as only 75 schools use the name Cowboys, and interestingly just 19 use the name Giants. These schools’ athletes have a deep connection, just as the Washington Redskins alumni, and many high school student-athletes have pride in calling themselves Redskins.
