Redskins fans on the warpath

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Fans of the Washington Redskins football team are on the warpath.

They want the NFL team’s original name back. This time, they have powerful allies, President Donald Trump and Native Americans.

President Trump has called for the NFL team in Washington, D.C. to have its longtime nickname restored after it was stripped during the “woke” silliness. He’s also demanding that the Cleveland Major League Baseball franchise restore the name “Indians” and shed the idiotic new moniker “Guardians”.

On Sunday, July 20, the president took to Truth Social to call for the team’s owners to bring back the Redskins name, which the historic franchise had been called since 1933, when it was still in Boston before being relocated. Either that, he warned, or no new stadium in the District.

The absurd name change took place in 2020 amidst the criminal upheaval that erupted after the death of fentanyl-addicted thug George Floyd because loony leftists insisted that Floyd was a saint and the Redskins name was racist. Following that, the team was temporarily known as the Washington Football Team until it was formally and laughingly renamed the Washington Commanders in 2022.

The point of removing the Redskins name from the team was the same as taking the pretty native girl off Land O Lakes products and doing away with Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. Make those minorities disappear. That’s what Democrats, the party of Karens, do. It’s surprising they didn’t insist that all three images be replaced with one of Floyd, O.J., and Dylan Mulvaney.

I’ve never seen a red person because there are no people who have red skin. The only red people are those who should be embarrassed because they changed the name.

Critics of the Redskins name say it is disparaging to Native Americans. Native Americans say that’s stupid and are advocating for the name to be reinstated.

The name had been in use for more than 80 years. Why don’t those left-wing loons on the woke bandwagon go after the folks at the Pentagon who have helicopters named Apache, missiles called Tomahawk, and airplanes called Lakota? The code name for the operation that snuffed Osama bin Laden was Geronimo.

What about the old Soviet Union and today’s China? Weren’t the Soviets called “Reds,” and aren’t the Chinese still called “Reds” today? Remember the Red Army? Were the soldiers red? Who remembers the 1960s cowardly left-wing student chant during the Vietnam War:  “Better red than dead?”

Native American Indians colored their skin red because it was the color of war. One thing the many diverse North American tribes — from the East Coast to the West — had in common was their definition of colors, with red war paint symbolizing blood, strength, energy, and power. It was the reason that, after doing battle with these fierce warriors, terrified settlers called them “redskins.”

The term “redskin” was first recorded in the late 17th century and was applied to the Algonquian peoples generally, but specifically to the Delaware. “Redskin” referred not to the natural skin color of the Delaware, but to their use of face and body paint. And in what is now South Dakota, when the Lakota tribe’s Black Elk prepared for battle at Wounded Knee, he said: “I painted my face all red.” They did this because it scared the hell out of the enemy.

They didn’t have the luxury of blasting Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ to the settlers from speakers strapped beneath helicopters. The warring tribes wore red paint using the same reasoning Robert Duval’s U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore explained in the film “Apocalypse Now” – “It scares the hell out of Charlie.”

Or maybe what all this brouhaha is about is that the woke Democrat crackpots think the Redskin footballers are guilty of “transracial” fraud, like Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who headed the NAACP chapter in Spokane, who tried to pass herself off as black or Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren who scalped funds falsely claiming she was a minority native American to land a Harvard job. Or maybe it’s lefties in the blue states trying to cancel as many of their red state rivals as possible.

No matter what, many others and I encourage the team owners to bring the Redskins name back and not cower before a small minority of politically correct nitwits who most likely believe that neither team should lose because it would be bad for the self-esteem of those players with the least amount of points at the end of a game.

The name “Redskins” pays tribute to the ferocity, strength, and courage of the Native American warrior and has nothing to do with skin color or is in any way disparaging. Just the opposite.

Dave Scott spent several years as a daily newspaper reporter in Florida and New York before joining the corporate world and heading up communications activities for IBM, ITT and other Fortune 50 companies in the U.S. and Europe, eventually running his own Atlanta agency. He lives on Amelia Island, FL, and blogs at www.davescottblog.com. He also writes, edits, and publishes the annual Amelia Island News-www.amelianewswrecker.com, a newspaper parody with the tag line “Amelia Island’s sacred cows make the best burgers.”

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