:nono: I'm not full blackfoot, but I've a quarter.
A while back the reply would have gone something like, "Good, then you can call for help."
There is no such thing as bad press, only bad intent. I was never offended by the honor of a team choosing to represent the indian nation.
A lot of people aren't, but the term was and is offensive for many, especially among the full and half bloods who don't have the option of "passing" as someone of a different ethnic origin. It wasn't that long ago that team had cheerleaders doing a phony war dance in stadium.
"Indian" isn't offensive either.
It wasn't coined to be. Redskin...look it up in Merriam Webster. It's usually an offensive term in usage. Well, why adopt a term that's mostly used to insult a people?
My redskin seems a bit thicker, even only being a quarter of the thickness. If I were black, I'd be a proud black and would let no other race give offense.
Oh, I'd bet if you were black, grew up being identified as black by the majority and one day one of that majority bought a sports team, slapped the silhouette of your race in profile and called them the "Raging Spear Chuckers" you'd probably end up offended and it would be reasonable for you to be.
So if we call a team the Crackers, the Paleskins, or the Palefaces, that'd be an offense to white people?
Those the nickname of a disenfranchised people systematically oppressed and ridiculed with the full force of law? :nono:
Then there's no meaningful parallel there, only a technical one, even in the hypothetical.
Football teams aren't looking for names that are derogatory, they are looking for names that are tough and mascots that they take pride in.
They were looking for something catchy for their mostly white audience, I suspect. Growing up the way we did, on diets of movies where John Wayne shot six "indians" (often Italians) off of horses with a single shot, we largely found it exciting instead of what it was...okay, I doubt anyone meant anything by it beyond that and we didn't mostly know better. No willful foul.
Now we do and our response to it deserves a very different treatment.