Alternative name for the Redskins

Washington Red Potato Skins.

Fixed.

Originally posted by T-9ers:

Originally posted by dmatt:
You can find someone to be offended by anything. I for one am extremely offended by the fighting irish and the vikings.

You are not offended by the fighting irish or vikings names, so your attempt at a joke is pointless. No other pro team has an offensive name in any way. From what i hear a very small percentage of the Native community are actually offended by the name, but that can still end up being a few million people. That's too many people, change the name. Nobody will even care in a few years. Plus it would be nice as a Niner fan to participate in making Skins fans angry for having to change their name.

Yeah, it wasn't an attempt at a joke. It was an example of how someone with thin skin could be offended by anything. If you aren't aware, the irish were horribly discriminated against when they came to this country and the term "fighting irish" is a remnant from that time. As for a small percentage of native Americans being offended resulting in a few million people, you clearly are not in tune with their population. Not that it's relevant to the argument, but the total population of native americans is 2.9 million. With that said, my point from the first post remains. You can find someone to be offended by anything. When the greens show up protesting the 49er logo for the negative impact of the gold rush on the environment of strip mining gold I'll bet you are singing a different story.

D. C. Vulva / Labia

Originally posted by dmatt:

Originally posted by T-9ers:

Originally posted by dmatt:

You can find someone to be offended by anything. I for one am extremely offended by the fighting irish and the vikings.

You are not offended by the fighting irish or vikings names, so your attempt at a joke is pointless. No other pro team has an offensive name in any way. From what i hear a very small percentage of the Native community are actually offended by the name, but that can still end up being a few million people. That's too many people, change the name. Nobody will even care in a few years. Plus it would be nice as a Niner fan to participate in making Skins fans angry for having to change their name.

Yeah, it wasn't an attempt at a joke. It was an example of how someone with thin skin could be offended by anything. If you aren't aware, the irish were horribly discriminated against when they came to this country and the term "fighting irish" is a remnant from that time. As for a small percentage of native Americans being offended resulting in a few million people, you clearly are not in tune with their population. Not that it's relevant to the argument, but the total population of native americans is 2.9 million. With that said, my point from the first post remains. You can find someone to be offended by anything. When the greens show up protesting the 49er logo for the negative impact of the gold rush on the environment of strip mining gold I'll bet you are singing a different story.

Non sequitur. No greens will protest, no irish will be offended, no vikings either. Try again to make a logical connection. True numbers of the native population is well over 5 million if you count those who have mixed lineages. It's just a stupid name, not sure why people want to alienate others over something that's meaningless. It's just a football game to us, just entertainment, but to them, whether its 100k people or a half million, they don't want it. Hope you can see the light on this one day, making peace is the point.

Originally posted by T-9ers:

Non sequitur. No greens will protest, no irish will be offended, no vikings either. Try again to make a logical connection. True numbers of the native population is well over 5 million if you count those who have mixed lineages. It's just a stupid name, not sure why people want to alienate others over something that's meaningless. It's just a football game to us, just entertainment, but to them, whether its 100k people or a half million, they don't want it. Hope you can see the light on this one day, making peace is the point.

The problem with this whole thing isn't whether or not the name is offensive to 1 or 1 million people, it's that nobody should be forced to change the name of their team to protect someone else's feelings. If public opinion is strong enough they'll change it without being forced to by an overbearing government.

We are becoming a society of pansies that can't handle having our feelings hurt, and it's absolutely pathetic.

Originally posted by trogdor:

The problem with this whole thing isn't whether or not the name is offensive to 1 or 1 million people, it's that nobody should be forced to change the name of their team to protect someone else's feelings. If public opinion is strong enough they'll change it without being forced to by an overbearing government.

We are becoming a society of pansies that can't handle having our feelings hurt, and it's absolutely pathetic.

I disagree with you and Rush Limbaugh. If I'm suppose to support your right to offend, you should support my right to not want to be offended. Besides, this is a particular group of people who have a legitimate gripe at being treated unfairly. I don't think it makes us pansies, it makes us wiser to see things from the perspectives of others. Honestly I do not give a s**t at all, I'm just throwing a compromise out thhere, kind of like an olive branch for peace. My reasons are simple, It would mean more to them for the name to be changed than it would mean to us to keep the name. In 10 years we wouldn't even care the name was changed.

The Washington Obama phones.

Originally posted by trogdor:
The problem with this whole thing isn't whether or not the name is offensive to 1 or 1 million people, it's that nobody should be forced to change the name of their team to protect someone else's feelings. If public opinion is strong enough they'll change it without being forced to by an overbearing government.

We are becoming a society of pansies that can't handle having our feelings hurt, and it's absolutely pathetic.

Unfortunately you are right. I mean it's become so pathetic that universities are getting rid of the word "Freshman" because it has the word man in it and women think it's sexist. That's just a slight example of what you said.

Originally posted by RicetoYoung:

Originally posted by trogdor:
The problem with this whole thing isn't whether or not the name is offensive to 1 or 1 million people, it's that nobody should be forced to change the name of their team to protect someone else's feelings. If public opinion is strong enough they'll change it without being forced to by an overbearing government.

We are becoming a society of pansies that can't handle having our feelings hurt, and it's absolutely pathetic.

Unfortunately you are right. I mean it's become so pathetic that universities are getting rid of the word "Freshman" because it has the word man in it and women think it's sexist. That's just a slight example of what you said.

Wow really? Thats ridiculous.

Originally posted by BobS:
If Redskin is such a nasty slur why when I have heard every racial slur under the sun used, have I never heard the term Redskin used other than when referring to the football team? Some people just feel the need to make a big deal out of nothing. If Native Americans make up .9% of the USA population that means there are 3 million living here, so why should anyone care about the few who claim to be offended? I could understand concern if there was a petition with a million Native American names on it against the term Redskin, but there isn't.

This is a very valid point.

I'd also wager that 90% of non NFL fans would not know what Redskins refer to or that it is a racial slur.

Of course the counter argument to your statistic is that while there are maybe 3 million pure Native Americans in the US, there probably is quite a bit more mixed Americans with N.A. heritage. I think we have all met an American Indian mutt or two in our lifetime.

The whole thing is very annoying. And if Redskins are bad, what about Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Chiefs?

How is this



more offensive than this



And I'm indian! I just hail from the dot punjabi tribe.

Washington Football Persons

On a serious note, though, I think we (as a society) need to make a distinction between a hypothetical "could cause offense" and a concrete "has caused offense"; as well as trying a little harder to distinguish between legitimate anguish and opportunistic.

What I mean is this: you, as a reasonably good person, SHOULD care if you have really caused someone actual anguish, whether you intended to or not. If you have, you should seek to rectify it and change your behavior to prevent it from happening again.

Some individuals seem to treat being offended as if it is a career (I am not saying these folks necessarily, but there are perenially indignant folk out there). When individuals like that say they are offended, you know it is not sincere, but because they have perceived a hypothetical offense and are attempting to exploit it.

The Redskins ownership has made the assumption that the complaints about the Redskins name are of this type--insincere. They do not believe that the existence of their team name is causing people actual pyschological suffering.

They could be wrong. If they are, they are then wrong to not consider changing the name. However, that's a moral consideration, so I still don't see the necessity of government involvement. You could make the case that they have a responsibility to the community to encourage respect for diversity, but I don't think there are any links between the team name and actual acts of intolerance against Native Americans, so it's more or less irrelevant. Finally, there is the issue of whether or not the NFL wants its brand associated with such language or stereotypes; however, if they found it problematic, the pressure would be coming from the league, not the government.

Originally posted by T-9ers:

I disagree with you and Rush Limbaugh. If I'm suppose to support your right to offend, you should support my right to not want to be offended. Besides, this is a particular group of people who have a legitimate gripe at being treated unfairly. I don't think it makes us pansies, it makes us wiser to see things from the perspectives of others. Honestly I do not give a s**t at all, I'm just throwing a compromise out thhere, kind of like an olive branch for peace. My reasons are simple, It would mean more to them for the name to be changed than it would mean to us to keep the name. In 10 years we wouldn't even care the name was changed.

Ad homonym.

There is no right to not be offended. You're just reinforcing my point about us becoming a bunch of pansies when you say stuff like that.

Originally posted by trogdor:

We are becoming a society of pansies that can't handle having our feelings hurt, and it's absolutely pathetic.

So much this. I hate all the political correctness bs that is overtaking society. It's gotten ridiculous.