Bullying the Redskins

I am a Washington Redskins fan, but this won't be an emotional argument.  Rather, I would like to point out some very poor thinking on the part of those that would like to see the organization change their name.  This trend  has been especially noticeable this year.

Most prevalent amongst the drivle was Bob Costas accosting the Redskins on their Sunday Night game against the Dallas Cowboys.  Bob's reasoning behind the need to change the Redskins' name shows it's flawed nature immediately when he says, "Even a majority of Native American's say they are not offended".  Bob doesn't state what that majority is (That majority is supposedly 90% but I can't find the correct link).

Why is all of the attention being direct at the Redskins?  There are plenty of high profile teams who also bear names that could be considered offensive to Native Americans (and let's remember, Native Americans is an offensive term as they didn't call this land America) Braves, Seminoles, Chiefs, Indians, Black Hawks, and plenty more if you take a quick look on the web.

Even President Obama has weighed in on the matter, "if I were the owner of the team and I knew that there was a name of my team, even if it had a storied history, that was offending a sizable group of people, I'd think about changing it."  Obama's two cents on the issue don't really matter, other than they demonstrate the amount of pressure that has been created to change the Redskins' name.

All of this pressure, at both the political and street level, amounts to bullying.  All of this pressure fails to acknowledge the history of the team The Washington Redskins.  There is also a failure to recognize that the Redskins are a privately owned organization and Dan Snyder has the right to do with it as he sees fit.  There is a failure by those offended by the word to take responsibility for themselves.

If you are offended by the Redskins' name, take the responsible action and stop watching them.  If Dan Snyder does change his team's name, then the Redskins' will have committed 'suicide' (in a sense) due to the actions of others.  If Dan Snyder changes his team's name, it will be due to bullying, and not because changing his team's name would be the right thing to do.