Tradition Be Damned

**Disclaimer: There are terms used within this post that are offensive and I apologize for my use of them. I use them to make a point – as a writer I well understand the power behind words.***

Most of my friends already know my position on this but lately it’s been really bothering me. So I’m going to blog about it – because that’s what we do in this day and age when we have a hot button issue that’s nagging at us. (Yes I can see the irony in that).

I live in the Northern Virginia area – my husband grew up here. He is a life long fan of the Washington football team. He’s cheered for them since he was a young boy – and no matter how badly they’re doing or how good, he still watches every game. That enthusiasm for the home team has been infused into me and I now cheer beside him. Fall has always been about football for me – granted for me growing up it was college football so learning about the NFL was a whole new experience.

The name of our team is the Washington Redskins. And as most people know this name has been debated back and forth for quite some time now. I’m sorry to acknowledge that there is a debate about this at all.

It’s a racial slur – plain and simple. Proponents of the name like to say “Oh it doesn’t bother anyone” or “but it’s tradition”.

Doesn’t bother anyone? If we had a team called the Wetbacks, the Niggers, the Micks, the Spics, Towel Heads, Chinks, Japs, Wops, Commies…none of these would be allowed. Why? Because they’re racial slurs. Period. Redskin is a racial slur. Period. The amount of “bother” it may cause makes it no less so. And it’s not something we should use to show how “proud” we are of Native Americans.

And tradition? TRADITION? You’re going to use tradition as the excuse as to why it’s okay to name a team a racial slur? Really? That’s a tradition you want to uphold? A tradition of racism. The Washington football team was the last team in the NFL to integrate. Yes, please, let’s uphold that wonderful tradition.

Will changing the name somehow make the lifelong fans stop cheering? I doubt it. You know what happens when a team changes its name? They make new merchandise and it FLIES off the shelf. The Washington Wizards changed their name from the Bullets. And they’ve revamped their look another time since them. And yet people are still buying their gear, going to their games and supporting their hometown team.

Because that’s what you do. You support the hometown teams. And you want them to be strong and forward thinking. You want them to represent you and all that your hometown stands for. So we want to stand for racism? And hide behind the buzzword of tradition? I don’t think so.

Let’s change the name – tell Dan Snyder to suck it! (He’s a whole other issue I’m not even going to get started on here).