The American football team of the Redskins (Washington), which was under strong pressure from its sponsors, confirmed Monday, July 13, that it would change its logo and its name, criticized for many years because of its racist connotation.
A new name will have to be chosen for one of the oldest and most successful teams in the NFL, the powerful American football league. The most contested – and long-standing – sports name in North America will not be in the rankings or the stadiums, at a time when the apparent signs of racial injustice in the United States are no longer tolerated.
Two weeks ago, the owner, Dan Snyder, announced a “In-depth review” the name of the team and “Today we are announcing that we will drop the Redskins name and logo after this review is complete”. A few years ago, the same owner had assured that ” never “ he would not change the name of his team, claiming that this nickname paid tribute to the Amerindians.
Driven by a sponsor
“Redskins” can be translated as “Redskins”, which directly refers to Native Americans – with a racist connotation. For decades, Native American tribes and their supporters have criticized a name “Which perfectly matches the definition of a racist insult”. Last week, more than a dozen tribal representatives wrote to Roger Goodell, the director of the national football league, the NFL, asking him to immediately stop using the name of the Washington team – a cause he had already defended a year ago.
The team owner, “Dan Snyder, and the coach, Rivera, are working closely to develop a new name and a new visual approach”, notes the press release announcing the news, Monday. The now abandoned logo represents an American Indian with a red face, with feathers in his hair. “We wish to keep our sponsors, our fans and the inhabitants of our thought process informed. “
After the death of George Floyd at the end of May, and while the United States is in the process of self-examination to rethink its relationship to its racist past, the pressure had increased even more around the Redskins. FedEx, one of its main sponsors and whose CEO is a direct shareholder of the team, asked last month that the team change its name.
The team had already distanced itself from its founder, George Preston Marshall, who had chosen this name of the “Redskins” in 1933 and was a notable segregationist. The Washington Redskins have won the Super Bowl title three times around 1990, and have failed to make it to the top of the NFL standings since 2005.
“It’s the end of a long and difficult journey”
Monday’s decision was greeted by several officials or activists of the Amerindian cause, who had denounced this name and its logo for decades. ” It was time “wrote New Mexico’s elected member of the House of Representatives, Debra Haaland, on Twitter. “We shouldn’t need a big social movement and pressure from sponsors to make the right decision, but I’m glad it happens”, added the parliamentarian, member of the pueblo tribe of Laguna.
“It’s the end of a long and difficult journey”, reacted on Twitter Notah Begay, the only Amerindian to have participated in the American professional golf circuit (PGA). For activist Suzan Shown Harjo, this change “Will help others [équipes] to abandon the survivors of their racism even faster “.
