Jack Stevens: There’s No Going Back

Last weekend, President Trump demanded on Truth Social that, "The Washington 'Whatever's' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,”else he’d huff and puff and blow away Washington, DC’s opportunity for a new stadium at the RFK site.

Apparently, “making America great again” means restoring a racist team monicker.

Look up the term “Redskins” in any dictionary and you’ll see it described variously as “offensive,” “contemptuous,” “disparaging,” "pejorative," and “insulting.”

The word became a white supremacist slur in the mid-19^th century when it was used in bounty proclamations to describe the sanguinary submission of Native American body parts, scalps or genitalia, as proof of a killing.

In 2013, the National Congress of American Indians, which represents tribal governments and 1.2 million reservation Indians, condemned the use of the word and called on the NFL and its Washington, DC franchise to ban it.

A Washington Post poll conducted in 2016 among self-identified American Indians found that the term offended 67% of respondents who were heavily involved with their indigenous cultures and 60% of young people.

Another Post survey, taken in May, showed that 62% of Washington, DC football fans liked or loved the name "Commanders."

In other words, the matter is settled and there’s no going back.

Besides, since the Washington, DC franchise changed its name to the “Commanders,” it has risen from mediocrity to become a play-off team. Some of us see a connection.