Is the Racial Slur “Redskins” the NFL’s Tradition Too?

 by Shakaboona Marshall

The NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and the nearly all-White male Billionaire team owners are one of the more blatantly racist & hypocritical privately owned businesses in America. Why is that one may ask?

 Despite the NFL’s awful history of not being in support of the anti-Racism struggle of African Americans, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently gave the NFL’s most harsh anti-Racist message after being prompted by a group of the NFL’s most prominent players, responding to a global Black Rebellion against racism spurred by the police murder of George Floyd. But wait a minute, doesn’t the NFL have a franchise in Washington, DC using a racial slur and a racist identity as the name & logo of its football franchise called the Washington “Redskins”? Ah ha, the contradiction. Doesn’t that make Commissioner Goodell’s so-called harsh anti-Racist message patently hypocritical? Absolutely.

 The NFL can’t now claim to be anti-Racist, while still taking no forceful action against NFL franchise owner Dan Synder’s use of a racist slur & logo of Native Americans for its Washington football team. The NFL must become anti-Racist by first cleaning their own house. So what must be done?

 The NFL should request Washington’s franchise owner Dan Snyder to remove the racist slur & logo of “Redskins” from his football franchise. If Snyder refuses, the NFL should publicly condemn him as a racist team owner, and should then proceed to force him to sell the $3.4 billion Washington franchise like the NBA did to the owner of the L.A. Clippers basketball team for being a racist & ruining the NBA’s image.

 Protest groups should organize all Americans to publicly condemn Dan Snyder and BOYCOTT the NFL.

 Protest groups should organize all Americans to BOYCOTT the Washington football team’s most prominent corporate sponsors – FedEx, Bank of America, Bud Light, and Pepsi – for associating their brands with the racist name “Redskins”.

 Protest groups can urge Washington, DC lawmakers to refuse to allow the Washington franchise to build its new stadium & headquarters in the city and to prevent the Washington football team from entering back into the city under the current racially offensive name & logo.

 Prominent NFL Players can use their huge social platforms to condemn & urge a boycott of both the NFL and Washington franchise owner Dan Snyder.

 For decades, a defiant Dan Snyder has aggressively defended the racist name & resisted calls to change it, arguing that the name represents tradition and is a term of respect. In 2013, Snyder told the USA Today, “We’ll never change the name, It’s that simple. NEVER – you can use caps.” Isn’t that what some Caucasian Americans said about the Confederate flag – that the Confederate flag represents southern tradition and heritage?!

 Snyder is faced with a rather easy choice to make – he can either embrace the social moment by removing his football team’s racist name & logo, while making a lot of money by renaming the team, selling new merchandise and attracting new fans & sponsors AND WIN [or] he can stick to his racist views & position by not removing his football team’s racist name & logo, while losing a lot of money, possibly losing his team, and having his team’s racist name & logo eventually removed anyway AND LOSE.

 The one thing Dan Synder will perhaps come to learn from trying to cling to a racist name as his tradition, is that “Change” is the one constant in the Universe, you cannot resist Change, and that Change is gone come whether you like it or not.

 From the Belly of the Beast, at PrisonRadio.org, I am Shakaboona.

 Thank you.