I have spent time each of the last few days reading articles about how the Skins current moniker is a racist slur. I have studied the methodology of several polls and studies that have been run, all using self-identifying Natives, and a very good article explaining why that is a problem. I've read opinion pieces from white and black journalists and even a couple of pieces from a legit Native journalist (he is a registered member of a tribe as opposed to a self-identifying Native). I have listened to long time Washington sports journalists talk about it on TV and on the internet. Everyone agrees that the name is a racist slur.
What I have yet to read or hear anyone explain is why it is a racist slur. No one has offered this information. At least in my extensive but admittedly not exhaustive research.
Perhaps I am peculiar but I like to understand things before making big decisions. And when I say that I mean deeply understand them down to their core. In the past few weeks, I have put in a lot of time learning a lot of history that isn't commonly taught in schools or colleges (full disclosure, I have a BA in History). I have spent time researching to confirm that the new facts I am reading are, indeed, facts, and not something made up or spun to support an opinion. I've listened to the first explanation of why it's okay for blacks to use the N-word but not okay for whites to use it. I've studied the Tulsa Massacre and learned about red-lining. And that is just a shortlist of the many things that I have come to light in my reading and research.
Now to the name of our beloved club...
I've learned how the name came from the first head coach - a Native himself. How the iconography was designed by Natives and how it closely mirrors the iconography on the Indian Head Nickle. I think we have all had a refresher course in the deeply ingrained racism of George Preston Marshall.
I'm willing to talk about a name change (yeah, I know, I won't be invited to the discussion and no one gives a damn about my opinion anyway) but I want to understand why first. I want to understand it at the same level I now understand the plight of the black man in this country. I want it to be more than popular opinion and a whole lot more than "because it is" - said in such a fashion so as to attempt to make me feel stupid for not seeing something so obvious. In short, when I give up something cherished that has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, I want to know I'm doing it to make a part of our great nation legitimately better.
I don't have that today, but I will keep looking.