JUST IN: FedEx has asked the Washington Redskins to change its name.

[Dennis Donovan]

Link to tweet

ABC 7 News - WJLA @ABC7News

JUST IN: @FedEx has asked the Washington @Redskins to change its name. Here is the statement:

“We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name.“

ABC 7 News - WJLA @ABC7News

The Washington Redskins name has been a hotly contested debate for decades.

Now @FedEx, the title sponsor of the team's stadium, has asked Washington to change its name.

FedEx asks 'the team in Washington' to change its name
The Washington Redskins name has been a hotly contested debate for decades. The team name is widely held to be a racist slur against Native Americans. Now, some major business partners of the team...

6:18 PM · Jul 2, 2020

[Sherman A1]

1. Good

Long overdue.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's about damn time.

Finally there's some pressure from a deep-pocketed sponsor because nothing else was going to do it. Why is this OK when we no longer tolerate team names based on any other racial slur? (And what about the Cleveland Indians? Not exactly a slur but why on earth name a team over an ethnicity, no matter what they're called?)

[lunasun]

3. Long past due Thankyou FedEx for using $

influence needed as title sponsor of the stadium

[MichMan]

4. I want to know why FedEx elected to buy naming rights for the stadium of a team with a racist name?

[SiliconValley_Dem]

6. maybe to advertise their brand on TV broadcasts? They have rights to a stadium name--not only

the NFL team uses the stadium

[SiliconValley_Dem]

5. this should have happened at least 20 or 30 years ago. I hope it does happen now

[Awsi Dooger]

7. Should be "change their name"

Change "its name" would only apply if referring to Washington the franchise after that connection was already clear.

It should be "change their name" if Redskins is used, either solo or following Washington

[Zorro]

8. So they'll change it to the DC Redskins...

[edhopper]

9. What will

vile Trump supporter Dan Snyder do?

[ibegurpard]

10. I've never understood the defense of the name "Redskins"

"Chiefs" you can make a case for but "Redskins"? There's no context other than the tokenization of Native Americans. Why defend it? Just change the fucking name. Get over it football fans.

[milestogo]

11. I had a co-worker who showed up to work in a tshirt that said "caucasians".

I asked him to explain it, and he told me he thought people complaining about the team name "redskins" was stupid and too politically correct. There are going to be a bunch of righties who flip out over this.

[ibegurpard]

12. Get a shirt that says wypipo

Maybe then he'll get it

[Iggo]

14. There ya go!

That’s about the only one that pisses ‘em off.

[tiptonic]

13. How about

'The trumpsters'.

[StarfishSaver]

15. This is a BFD

[wnylib]

16. Long overdue.

For too long they have refused to see Native Americans as people and regard them as objects to caricaturize.

In 2013, there was a huge controversy over changing the name of the high school football team at Lancaster, NY, a suburb of Buffalo. Their name was the Lancaster Redskins. Other school teams in the region where there were Native students refused to play against Lancaster unless the school changed the name. The Seneca nation offered to hold a dialogue meeting between Native students from other schools and the non-Native Lancaster students and their families to discuss a resolution.

The white students and their families went wild with some pretty ugly protest signs and demonstrations instead of calmly discussing the issue. The president of the Lancaster boosters club complained that it would cost too much to change uniforms and signs and declared that the Senecas who objected should pay at least half of the cost of changing the name.

In the end, the school superintendant agreed to drop the Redskins name and held a contest for students to submit suggestions for a new name. They settled on the Lancaster Legends. When the new name was announced, white parents and their children held loud demonstrations, shouting, "Lancaster Redskins forever!"

In a nearby county, there is a high whose sports teams are still called the Red Raiders. For many decades, their mascot was the Chief Wahoo caricature of a Native man in breechclout with a huge, toothy, stupid-looking grin waving a tomahawk. Somebody dressed like that ran around during halftime and in between plays to stir up cheers from the crowd. Wahoo was depicted on the
t-shirts, sweatshirts, and pennants that the team sold to raise money. The local newspaper printed a picture of Wahoo in the sports column when reporting on games.

They slowly, gradually stopped selling items with Wahoo on them. Eventually, they stopped using the Wahoo mascot during games. But they still call themselves the Red Raiders. The majority of their students are white, Hispanic, and African American. So why do they appropriate a name and identity that has nothing to do with them?

[Shermann]

17. So the "Washington FedExers" then?

Will Washington be the first team to outright sell the name of their team to the highest bidder? Why stop at just the stadium?

I don't see "Redskins" as a slur. Slurs are highly contextual. What for-profit organization in their right mind would build their brand around what they perceive to be a pejorative?

No, slur isn't the right word. They are co-opting culture in a schlocky way to build a brand. That would be a fair criticism.

I guess the New Orleans Saints will be next. We can't have fans dressing up like cardinals and co-opting imagery from the Catholic Church.

The Patriots seems to be taking a lot of liberty (tee hee) with Revolutionary themes.

I'm afraid these teams will have to choose innocuous animal names like everybody else. The New Orleans Alligators and New England King Crabs are perfectly good names.

[Nature Man]

18. "I don't see "Redskins" as a slur."

Mighty white of you.

[Shermann]

19. Did you know...

some Native American schools also use the name for their teams, and many Native Americans don't consider it a slur?

https://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/08/how-many-native-americans-think-redskins-is-a-slur/

Again, context is everything.

[Nature Man]

20. It's just easier to not be a racist

POCs, Native Americans get the right to call themselves what THEY choose, not what SOME white folks choose.

What it is with SOME white folk and their disdain for ANY kind of self-determination non whites choose to express?

[jcgoldie]

22. WTF?!?

"Redskins" is about as racist as you can get without using an actual cuss word to describe a group of people. It was used to degrade a collection of 100s of tribes across North America based purely on the color of their skin. Sort of the textbook definition of fucking racism.

[Nature Man]

23. facepalm

ugh

Agreed.