********* Warning this does contain full quotes with racist language and profanity********
"What I find curious is how some people I’ve talked to are
offended by a derogatory term for Asians, but not by the word ‘Redskin.’ Folks,
‘Redskins’ is not a term of endearment, any more than the N word or any other
racial or ethnic slur. From its inception and inclusion in our language, it was
meant to be an insult.
“What’s fascinating is that while ‘Redskin’ the word may be awful
to some people, ‘Redskin’ the player or ‘Redskins’ the team is adored by so
many. There are people in this town who love the Redskins more than they do
their own spouse. They’re willing to tell you that to your face, in front of
their spouse. They don’t even think of the original connotation of the word. It
is not toxic to them.
“And they don’t want to hear about it, either. The word to
them is a reference to something cherished, and that’s all. It is not a
subject for discussion about whether it ought to be, maybe, changed."
Here in June 2013 Fox
Nation reported his comments on how journalists and newspapers
were no longer saying, writing, or printing the Rword.
"The Redskins name
issue still strikes me as something that many more media members care about,
proportionally, than do normal football fans. But that doesn’t appear to be
strictly a D.C. media phenomenon."
He opens the post with an
apology:
(I know that
you [and every single one of your friends] are so tired of reading stories
about the Redskins nickname, both pro and con, that you [and they] have vowed
never to ingest another word on the topic. I also know that, somehow, invisible
space aliens keep clicking on everything we publish about the topic. Also, this
is a national news story involving our most popular local team, taking place
during our slowest sports time of the year. So I apologize, but there will be
several of these items today.)
Here in June 2014 Steinberg exposes the huge mainstream misinformation
out there that this is a "new issue" by showing the uproar in the
early 1970's when AIM-American Indian Movement was in its heyday, but again
apologizes first:
Note: Don’t read this. Seriously, just don’t read it. I’m
writing this (very lengthy) item for my own benefit. Despite myself, I somehow
have become fascinated with the Redskins name topic — as an amateur historian,
not as an advocate. I don’t care what ultimately happens, but I find the
history really interesting.
But you don’t find it interesting. You find it tiresome and
repetitive. So please, I’m begging you, just don’t read this.
For what it’s worth, I worked on this item late at night, on my
own time, so it wouldn’t detract from my normal Post work of covering athletic
facial hair and preparing sports radio transcripts.
I get that you guys have to write about hot topics and especially ones that are going to draw readers’ attention….I’m just so sick of the name issue….Like your articles say in the beginning don’t continue to read if you don’t want to hear about the name issue. As a life long diehard redskins fan it’s quite annoying that after so long it’s just now becoming such an issue.
I’ve
gotten the same frustrated question on Twitter, via e-mail and in our comments
section again and again in recent months: how did a word that was not offensive
for 75 or 80 years suddenly become offensive in 2013?
These are only a few examples, but to say he is ignorant to everything
surrounding Native Mascotry would be false. He was reported to have been asked
to work for Snyder, Washington team owner, at one point. A member of Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry-EONM pointed out he
left out some important facts about Chris Cooley who is widely considered to
have very
racist views about Native Americans in some recent coverage. That was coupled with
a great deal of whispering about him being a paid shill of the Washington Team,
but that is more a reflection of the attitude people had than any proof I can
offer. I would put nothing past Snyder or the NFL. I have never held so low a
regard for those two camps as I have the past few months as they have continued
the attacks on inter-tribal relationships and amongst families. Somehow I
thought after all the Native Mascotry was gone, football would be a uniter and
for everyone - at long last. I don't know if I can feel that way again.
Before that happened, Steinberg was adamant about declaring
"neutrality" on racism. Every good scientist knows that there is no
such thing as a world free of bias, but acknowledging it in the media industry
can be a tricky thing. In many private conversations I have had with fellow Native Americans and allies against Native Mascotry they had been sensitive
to that early on. Just like many advocates had been sensitive to the fact that most Washington team fans really
had no idea about the APA
resolution against mascots or the firm stance of many governments
and organizations for close to a decade now. Yes, a decade. Including my own government, the Cherokee
Nation. In fact, the five largest Tribal Nations have resolutions against
Native Mascotry.
Natives are always expecting
a fight to be heard from the US Government in matters that concern our well
being in DC. It is a sore point to hear it in DC from even the NFL. Snyder and Goodell, NFL commissioner, have totally ignored our nations and they aren't even in politics, well supposedly. Also, I contend that any indigenous
person in Indian Country who says they "didn't know" it was an issue
or "never heard of it" is an outright liar or very disconnected from
Indian Country all together. When the largest nations in Indian Country have resolutions against something and they get ignored for nearly ten years by the NFL-um yeah, if you are part of your community ya K-N-O-W about it.
Much was up for
debate, and we are still in the middle of it, because Dan Snyder and the NFL have become increasingly malicious in ignoring Native Americans. Slowly the coverage
became more and more a dinner table issue over the last year. I am
convinced most everyone in America has heard that "Native Americans find
the term Redsk*n(s) an offensive racial slur." For me personally, and many
other people agree with me on this point, once you know that it's a racial slur and it is widely known-there is no excuse to continue
using it. There is perhaps a small window to educate someone on why it is a slur, but
after that if you use a racial slur. But, after that don't be surprised when the people you are
racially disparaging and others - call you a racist.
Jacqueline Keeler
outright asked Steinberg to please quit using a racial slur after months of back and forth in Twitterverse...
This is not the only time
Native Americans in EONM, Natives outside EONM, and allies have interacted with
Steinberg over the last many months via twitter questioning his neutrality. Native Americans
rightly question his "neutral" defense. He may be attacked by
fans for just reporting about Native Americans point of view, for which he apologizes, but our
advocates can literally be trying to educate someone and getting insensitive
push-back one day and the next day be dead. It will forever hurt my soul to
think that some of the last memories for my dead friend might be of some apathetic
person saying to him something like this, "Go die in a ditch",
"Just kill yourself you filthy creature", "What's the point of
genocide if you can't have some fun with it", "Hail to the REDSK*NS.
I'm not even going to acknowledge them
fucking idiots that trying to troll us Reds*ns fans", "Be careful,
She may scalp your ass...", "your "children" are alcoholics
collecting a check every month" and it goes on and on for me and many others every
day. If you are thinking, well I can see you
saying Steinberg is racist because of the slur
use, but why scumbag?
This is what
happened.
I was calling attention to Hilary
Duff going on a nationally syndicated radio show in Atlanta
and "learning" the Tomahawk Chop, like it was a good thing. I would die inside if my child ever went to a stadium full of people doing "The Chop". I
saw a mention about Native Americans outraged over a Steinberg tweet where he
praised a Washington team fan in a headdress and fake war paint. I had already
written him off at this point personally as a racial slur sympathizer hiding in a cloak of neutrality. I
did a meme of him and his exact words with the picture he tweeted.
 |
No - there is no
humor in redface or joy -for Native Americans most of all. What happened at Sand
Creek is a salient point to me. It is a singular example among many others, not
the least of which is when the US Soldiers and Georgia militia came to remove
the Cherokee. They didn't get to keep anything in their homes that day. Their
ornaments were taken and worn by people who only wanted them "removed from
the face of the earth". At Sand Creek they took everything including body
parts and skin. If you think those people who so brutally butchered the Cheyenne and Arapaho families at Sand Creek didn't mock their ornaments by wearing them, joking and laughing, you
have more faith in humanity than even me. I see this same tradition going on
today in people and it stings in the present and it stings from the past. A
past that America has little acknowledged or even teaches its citizenship
about.
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When challenged about how
offensive his tweet was by Native Americans he offered this
explanation,
which was really stinging
considering that the percentage that didn't get it as a sarcastic tweet is about the percentage of enrolled citizens in Tribal Nations. Oh
boy, and Native Americans were quick to
point it out to him. I don't see how Native Americans were so far off the
mark when - the slurporters - as some of us call them, were so quick to jump on what they felt was a call to submit
repulsive redface and joke. I was trolled for hours by slurporters after Steinberg's "sic 'em boys" tweet in which he linked to mine. Clearly, they thought he was not sarcastic either. Steinberg
went on to offer this context for his tweet some two days and hours later.
So, that is what happened to neutrality about a racism issue.
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