It’s time for another Who Won the Week prompt. The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
Before I announce my selection for Who Won the Week, I need to provide a little background. I was raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC. As a boy, I was a big fan of Washington’s Major League Baseball team, the Washington Senators, and the National Football League’s Washington Redskins.
To be honest, I never really gave much thought to the football team’s name. As a white kid living in the suburbs, I naively looked at the team’s name as a way of paying tribute to Native Americans, not really thinking about its racist connotations.
But for the the past decade or so years, there has been mounting pressure for the Washington football team to change its name, which many consider to be a racist trope.
Yet, even in the face of governmental and activist pressure to change it, Dan Snyder, the team’s owner, has been steadfast in his insistence to keep the name. “We’ll never change the name,” Snyder said in 2013. “It’s that simple. Never — you can use caps.”
But the day could soon be coming when the team will, indeed, change its name. In the last month, since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, a widespread movement has led to a reconsideration of statues, flags, symbols, and mascots considered to be racist or celebrating America’s racist history.
A few days ago, signs emerged that a change to Snyder’s intractable stance may be in the works. One day after two prominent corporate sponsors, FedEx and Nike, began backing away from the team’s name, and which prompted other sponsors to follow suit, the team published this announcement on Friday:
“In light of recent events around our country and feedback from our community, the Washington Redskins are announcing the team will undergo a thorough review of the team’s name.”
So, I am proclaiming that Native Americans won the week with the probably fall of the “Redskins” nickname for the Washington NFL team.
Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves, you’re next.
Now it’s your turn, folks. Who (or what) do you think won the week?
This, That, and the Other 
This seems stupid to me as I never saw this as being racist, but I guess the Florida Seminoles will also have to come up with a new name. Next the Cowboys will be considered racist because they were known for battling the Indians. Why stop there, the Giants may be raciest to little people and this crap will never end and only the Eagles will survive in the NFC East.
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I don’t know… it seems to me the eagle represents empire or colonialism.
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Well, I think the nickname “Redskins” is kinda racist. What if a team’s nickname was the Yellowskins or the Black Faces? There are black, Hispanic, and even Native American cowboys. And Seminoles is the name of a Native American tribe, so it’s not derogatory. The Baltimore Bullets relocated to Washington, DC and shortly after changed the name of the team to the Wizards because of concern over the deadly nature of bullets. These are different times and there are different sensibilities and sensitivities than there were 70 years ago. I loved the Redskins name, but it has always been a racist term and it’s time to change it.
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I think we’re going to have to define, better, what it is we’re really wanting to leave behind. Is it racism specifically… by whatever definition? Oppressive iconography? Appropriation? References to skin or any color that could be a skin color? References to culture or ethnicity? Cringeworthy mascots? Anyway, I think you’re right about the notion of red skin in America, especially in an adversarial context (even if the context is a fun substitute for violent aggression).
I also, though, wonder how the team name All Blacks (of which they are very proud) got started in New Zealand. But I guess that’s for them to figure out. I’ve pondered, today, why we don’t have teams called the Proud Boys or the Sons of Dixie. I’m thinking it’s because “we” considered Native Americans as friendlies by the time football started, and Confederate types probably would take a defeat… or a win… in a game too seriously. How about the Reich or the Trumps?
Jim is probably right. We could have the Eagles, Turkeys, Snakes, Alligators, Seahawks, Ravens, Orioles. Cowboys kinda works, in that they could be of any skin tone. Yet, there is the old standard of cowboys “-n-” or versus Indians somehow based in historical fact. It’s good that the Baltimore/D.C. team changed their name from glorifying bullets, but I’m glad there aren’t any magical names (I think) in football or big league baseball. There is a religious one, though, to march in.
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If football ever picks up again, I will be cheering for the Buccaneers and the Chiefs. (The Chiefs quarterback got quite a deal today.)
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I see nothing wrong with a football team named “the Saints.” And I’m an atheist.
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I’ve been following this on my Sports Channel “THE FAN 590” The Guys think it’s about time! So do I.
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Yep, me too.
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I don’t know. It’s not a story I’m aware of but, the way you tell it, it seems clear that this guy’s motivation was purely money. That said, I’m not entirely sure that the name *should* be changed. But I posted on this before.
It sounds ironic if Nike withdraw sponsorship, isn’t the word Nike itself native American? I could be wrong…
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Nike is from Greek (a goddess) for “upper hand” or, the Roman equivalent, Victory.
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thx Marleen
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Nike was the Greek winged goddess of victory.
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thanks F too!
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Cleveland especially – as well as the picture of a smiling “redskin”!
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Regrettably, I fear COVID-19 won the week. I write this with terrible dismay, but I think that as the virus has spiked in places where people have refused to acknowledge its existence—and both elected officials and the public continue this deadly, willful ignorance, our entire nation will pay the price—especially the most vulnerable among us.
The situation is ghastly, inexcusable, and incomprehensible.
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“The situation is ghastly, inexcusable, and incomprehensible.” What is truly ghastly, inexcusable, and incomprehensible is the way the Trump Administration has failed and how, almost to a person, GOP representatives at the federal, state, and local levels are following Trump’s lead. Grrr!
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I think that’s what I was saying!
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👍
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I don’t know much about this debate, but I remember some Native American chiefs saying they did not have a problem with the name “Redskins” or team logo when the discussion began ten years ago, because that is what they proudly called themselves. I wonder if this time around it is really Native American communities who are requesting the change, or as Mr. Bump UK points out, it could be motivated purely to keep sponsors happy.
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I think that in today’s environment, there is a more refined sensitivity to names like these, which is why pressure has been mounting for the team to change its name, and I think that sentiment within the Native American community has grown over the past decade.
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Good choice this week Fandango. I agree that it is time for the name (and that of other teams) to be changed to a more politically correct name.
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