The recent and short-lived #CancelColbert campaign caused much controversy over whether the joke was offensive to Asian-Americans. Lost in the #CancelColbert fervor was the fact that Colbert’s joke meant to mock Dan Snyder’s Original Americans Foundation, widely thought to be a PR tactic to appease Native Americans and others who oppose the name “Washington Redskins.”
Ironically, Snyder’s comment that “for too long, the struggles of Native Americans have been ignored, unnoticed and unresolved” came true. Many Native Americans were frustrated that yet again coverage of an issue affecting Native Americans was overshadowed by something else. As activist Jacqueline Keeler noted, the #CancelColbert hashtag’s originator didn’t even mention Native Americans in her interviews about it and only the Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Yang mentioned the Native American response. Colbert himself during his response to #CancelColbert noted that “Twitter seems to be fine with [Snyder’s foundation], because I haven’t seen shit about that.”
Despite Snyder’s often tone-deaf attempts to appease the Native American community (for example, a donation of a backhoe and 3,000 coats to a tribe in Omaha), Native Americans have and continue to campaign for Snyder and other teams to change their names and mascots to something not racist. Although Snyder and many others claim that the team’s name is meant as an honor, most people consider the word to be a racial slur. For example, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently refused to register the trademark “Washington Redskins Potatoes” on the grounds that it would constitute a disparaging mark.
In addition, Native Americans have consistently argued that using Native Americans as part of a team name, a mascot and other team-related imagery is not an “honor” but is instead tantamount to red-face minstrelsy – that, among other things, Native Americans are seen as mascots and not as people. See, for example:
this 2002 political cartoon become reality pic.twitter.com/HVLA4E8JES
— Ann Boobus (@a_girl_irl) April 5, 2014
The anti-Native mascotry campaign has steadily gotten more supporters in solidarity and have gotten more successes. Those interested in helping out can:
- Follow and/or like Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry (EONM) on Facebook or Twitter.
- Use the hashtags #Not4Sale, #NotYourMascot, #ChangeTheName on Twitter.
- Send an e-mail to [email protected] asking the Washington Redskins to change their name.
- Send either or both a letter or red potato to Dan Snyder, c/o Redskin Park, 21300 Redskin Park Dr., Ashburn, VA 20147.
