Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals don’t agree on much these days, but people of all ideological stripes find common ground on this point: Politicians really should stay out of sports, as much as possible. The reasons for that are two-fold. First, elected leaders usually come across as idiotic when they try to sound like they’re part of the team. And even in those rare moments when they might be onto something, the of an American politician is so tarnished that the public believes they’re moronic, even if they might have stumbled onto the truth.
It shouldn’t have come as a big surprise, then, that David Grosso, a member of the Washington D.C. City Council, drew scorn and derision last week for wading into athletic waters. And Grosso, an independent, went out into the deepest part of the Tidal Basin, talking about the NFL team that plays in the Nation’s Capital. Grosso believes that the team, the Redskins, should change its name. He plans to introduce a resolution in the council that reads, in part, “District residents and their elected representatives should not tolerate commercial or other use of derogatory terminology relating to any people’s racial identity, or which dishonors any person’s race, or which dishonors the name Washington.”
It’s hard to argue that the moniker, Redskins, which followed the team south in its relocation from Boston in the 1930’s, isn’t patently offensive to the Native Americans that it purports to honor. To the general public, that name doesn’t produce the same emotional impact as slurs that hurled against Blacks, Jews, Italians, Hispanics and Asians, just to name a few ethnicities. That may be because the sheer numbers of Native Americans still around to protest is infinitesimal compared to the populace of those aforementioned groups.
Just last week, an Associated Press poll indicated that 79 percent of those who responded think the Redskins should keep that name, with only 11 percent saying the name should be changed.
That seems pretty cut and dried, but likely similar polling on far more contentious and important matters like same-sex or multi-racial marriage or even gun control might have been dramatically skewed in one direction. Attitudes can change, especially if people are presented with new information or if circumstances change.
In this case, the change instrument might be good old American commerce. A three judge panel has been hearing testimony over the past few weeks in a case where a group of Native Americans are asking for the Redskins federal trademark permission to be taken away until they change the name.
Plus the city may make a name change a part of a negotiation if the Redskins try to move back into Washington from their current home in Prince George’s County.
Grosso proposes that the team be named Red Tails in honor of the nickname of the planes the famed Tuskegee Airmen helmed during World War II. Granted, that sounds a little odd and perhaps it’s a bit of a bend to political correctness. So what? Better to be a little odd and PC than a lot racist and for something as meaningless as a football team.