Redskin name, again....but they don't mind it...again (poll, activist, racism)
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The survey of 504 people across every state and the District reveals that the minds of Native Americans have remained unchanged since a 2004 poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found the exact same result. Responses to The Post’s questions about the issue were broadly consistent regardless of age, income, education, political party or proximity to reservations.
I think most Indians accept the name as a tribute. I think of it that way myself, but surprisingly a survey from a few years ago showed over 40 percent of NFL players themselves felt the name should be changed.
Obviously the Harvard educated liberal activists haven't gotten through to them yet that they should be offended. Their ancestors were the ones who handed the Indians the pox tainted blankets. Today they are trying to hand them their putrid ideology. At least the Indians are smarter than that and won't fall for it this time.
It's going to irritate the same small number of people who make noise and carry signs at Redskins games and get the attention of the mainstream media, which in turn blows the story way out of proportion and wants people to think most Native Americans are aboard the PC train.
Obviously the Harvard educated liberal activists haven't gotten through to them yet that they should be offended. Their ancestors were the ones who handed the Indians the pox tainted blankets. Today they are trying to hand them their putrid ideology. At least the Indians are smarter than that and won't fall for it this time.
It proved particularly effective because the Ohio tribes had little immunity having missed the 1757-58 epidemic among the French allies contracted during the capture of Fort William Henry (New York). The Shawnee were fighting the Cherokee in Tennessee at the time, and they carried the disease to them, and then the Shawnee living with the Creek Confederacy. From there it spread to the Chickasaw and Choctaw, and finally the entire southeast. Before it had run its course, the epidemic had killed thousands, including British colonists.
There is an often repeated story that the Cherokee were given blankets infected with smallpox from a hospital in Tennessee during the Cherokee removal (Trail of Tears). We have found no historical basis for this story. Though thousands died during the removal west, there is no evidence of a major smallpox outbreak along the trail. In fact, the Cherokee population had been greatly reduced by several epidemics in the previous hundred years.
And when the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian hosted a symposium on Indian mascots in February, museum director Kevin Gover, himself a Native American, said the word was "the equivalent of the N-word." At the same event, former Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell asked the crowd to consider an equally offensive name for the local sports team: "How you would like for us to change the name of that team to the Washington Darkies?"
Quote:
Native American activist Suzan Shown Harjo has been battling the Redskins over the name for more than 20 years. "The name is one of the last vestiges of racism that is held right out in the open in America," Harjo said in a recent phone conversation. "It's a toy of racism, and the people who are holding on [to the name] for dear life, they know that."
Or do they? And no one thinks it's offensive?
Quote:
Over half of those questioned agreed that the word "redskin" is an inappropriate term to describe Native Americans.
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