Senator threatens NFL's tax-exempt status over the Redskins name

[garbon]

My favorite "somebody finds something offensive you aren't aware of" moment was when I was invited to a BBQ by some black friends at NYC, after I had been there for roughly a year, and I brought a load of watermelons with me. Man, the stares.

I just really, really like watermelons. 

Watermelon is awesome.  Why liking something delicious is a sign of racial inferiority I never got.  It should be a sign of superiority.

I think the idea is that black people were simple for being so easily made happy. I don't think it was a dig on eating watermelon.

[Capetan Mihali]

My favorite "somebody finds something offensive you aren't aware of" moment was when I was invited to a BBQ by some black friends at NYC, after I had been there for roughly a year, and I brought a load of watermelons with me. Man, the stares.

I just really, really like watermelons. 

[viper37]

I've pointed out before that French Canadians, who historically loved the hell out of their Indians, called them peaux-rouges.  Quebecois posters have confirmed that peaux-rouges does not carry any negative connotations.

hmm, not sure about that for today.  In 17th-18th century, yeah, sure, and they were often called "savages" (sauvages), wich stayed at least through the last colonization era of the 19th early 20th century in Abitibi, Témiscamingue and Lac St-Jean areas.

I am unconvinced that calling them 'peaux-rouges' today wouldn't be derogatory.  Who told you that, Oex?  Are you sure he wasn't talking about French colonial era?

[Barrister]

How do you all feel about the whole Yid Army/Super Jews issue?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/football-why-tottenham-and-ajax-fans-have-a-jewish-identity-a-926095.html
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/we_should_all_stand_with_the_yid_army/14136#.Uvqo52J_uSo

If I understand it correctly, the names of "Yid Army" and "super Jews" are entirely fan generated and fan supported, right?  Tottenham doesn't go around selling a whole bunch of "Yid Army" t-shirts right? (and a quick check of their website seems to confirm this - search function reveals no use of the word "yid").

While the story sounds very empowering, it also seems to give free reign to opposing fan-bases giving in to very explicit anti-semitic references (Making a hissing sound like a gas chamber is unbelievable).

Sounds like the team is striking the right balance - trying to discourage the practice, but not going to an orwellian level trying to dictate what cheers your fans can use.

[Agelastus]

It is always so cute when people make jokes around things that are considered offensive where they live but are in other places.

Eh everything is probably offensive to somebody somewhere.

Yeah which is why it isn't really so cute. More like wow, can you believe our resident Mensa brain hasn't heard of something?

Amusingly well remembered, Garbon.

Suffice it to say I find the fuss about the "Redskins" name, a name with eighty years historicity in its current context, quite laughable. There's virtually nothing that doesn't manage to offend somebody somewhere.

One would think that American Senators and Representatives had better things to do. Out of interest, is the Senator facing re-election?

[Admiral Yi]

I am unconvinced that calling them 'peaux-rouges' today wouldn't be derogatory.  Who told you that, Oex?  Are you sure he wasn't talking about French colonial era?

Le renard homosexuel.

[garbon]

Suffice it to say I find the fuss about the "Redskins" name, a name with eighty years historicity in its current context, quite laughable. There's virtually nothing that doesn't manage to offend somebody somewhere.

Of course it could also be that in this age of greater tolerance, there's now more of a likelihood that people are willing to pay attention to unnecessary offensive gestures.

I'm not sure just because there is someone somewhere that will be offended about something (and thus everything can offend someone) means that we don't need to consider offense. If only because that's part of being a decent person.

[Agelastus]

Suffice it to say I find the fuss about the "Redskins" name, a name with eighty years historicity in its current context, quite laughable. There's virtually nothing that doesn't manage to offend somebody somewhere.

Of course it could also be that in this age of greater tolerance, there's now more of a likelihood that people are willing to pay attention to unnecessary offensive gestures.

I'm not sure just because there is someone somewhere that will be offended about something (and thus everything can offend someone) means that we don't need to consider offense. If only because that's part of being a decent person.

One can be a decent person while still drawing lines at what one considers to be a sufficient level of offense to be taken seriously. My line seems to be at a different level to yours. Although I'm fairly sure there's a lot of things we'd both agree on as being offensive.

There's been quite a lot of evidence in this thread that the "offense" given by these types of names seems to be felt by only a minority of the people who have a right to be offended. I'd probably be more sympathetic to the cause if this was not the case (not that I'm saying I wouldn't still consider it laughable, just that regardless of my opinion it would clearly be offensive enough to warrant action if the majority of those allegedly slurred were upset about it.)

As I said, the name has been used in the context of the Sports team for eighty years. That ought to give it some legitimacy independent of other usages of the term.

But then again, I do tend to self-identify as a Conservative.

[garbon]

Native Americans are a minority of people in the US.

And no, I don't think appealing to the longevity of being around makes something less offensive. Just means that said group was powerful enough to resist forces of change.


An example on the positive, I would say is something like Aunt Jemima who has moved from horrible caricature to "standard" slave getup to working mother. The mascot had some sort of slave associated clothing up until the 80s but I don't think longevity of practice stands as a good counter argument to modifying her appearance.

[garbon]

But then again, I do tend to self-identify as a Conservative.

In this trans-Atlantic discussion, probably not a useful term.

[KRonn]

An example on the positive, I would say is something like Aunt Jemima who has moved from horrible caricature to "standard" slave getup to working mother. The mascot had some sort of slave associated clothing up until the 80s but I don't think longevity of practice stands as a good counter argument to modifying her appearance.

Aunt Jemima. I've wondered if the company had gotten any blowback on using that pic or label, and assumed they must have. The picture change is a good idea and the label as an Aunt shouldn't be any problem. Things were very different decades ago when the original mascot and product came out. Plus I use and like that pancake mix. 

[jimmy olsen]

This is classic Snyder 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ceo-of-new-washington-redskins-foundation-connected-to-defective-federal-contract/2014/03/28/382142b4-b678-11e3-a7c6-70cf2db17781_story.html

CEO of new Washington Redskins foundation connected to 'defective' federal contract


By Theresa Vargas and Tom Jackman, Published: March 28 E-mail the writers

The man leading a Washington Redskins foundation aimed at helping Native Americans also heads an organization that had a $1 million contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs terminated after federal investigators found the group's work "unusable."

Gary L. Edwards is the chief executive of the National Native American Law Enforcement Association, which won a contract in 2009 with the bureau that called for recruiting Native Americans to work in law enforcement in Indian country.


The investigation, outlined in a 2012 inspector general's report, found that of the 748 applications the organization supplied, none were usable. One applicant was 80 years old. Several were not U.S. citizens. Of the 514 applications reviewed by the inspector general's office, only 22 were of Indian descent. The inspector general's office advised that the contract be terminated immediately, and it was. But then the bureau paid Edwards's group an additional $600,000 as "settlement costs," meaning it received almost the entire $1 million of the contract.

This week, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder introduced Edwards — first in a letter to fans and then at a meeting with fellow National Football League team owners — as the head of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. The foundation, according to Snyder's letter, "will address the urgent challenges plaguing Indian country based on what tribal leaders tell us they need most." Already, it has donated 3,000 coats to Native Americans and helped purchased a backhoe for a tribe.

On Tuesday, team General Manager Bruce Allen praised Edwards, a Cherokee and retired deputy assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service, on a Redskins.com video broadcast, saying, "I think we have the right leader in Gary Edwards."

Edwards did not respond to attempts to reach him Thursday, but in a statement released through the team, he said his organization "believes it met and exceeded all of its obligations under the contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Justice Services, and subsequently was paid after the contract was completed."

Team spokesman Tony Wyllie said the team would have no further comment.

The creation of the Redskins foundation and appointment of Edwards comes as the team faces unprecedented pressure to change its name, which has been described by some tribal leaders, lawmakers and civil rights groups as a slur against Native Americans. In an interview Tuesday, Edwards said he has "no problem" with the name.

He became involved with the team, he said, after a former co-worker who lives near Allen suggested that the two meet. He eventually joined team officials, who at times included Snyder and Allen, on trips to more than 26 reservations across 20 states.

At least several of those visits were arranged by Jennifer Farley, a former George W. Bush White House staffer who was linked to the Jack Abramoff scandal. Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist who admitted to running a wide-ranging corruption scheme, was accused of bilking tens of millions of dollars from Indian tribes. Farley, who now runs her own lobbying firm, did not respond to a call for comment.

Edwards said he and Snyder found "some real common ground" as far as "my desire to help my people and his willingness to help the American Indian, his fans and his people." He said he had always dreamed of creating an organization that would benefit Native Americans.

At least once before, when defending the team's name, Redskins officials have failed to thoroughly vet those they work with. Last May, the team featured an interview with Stephen Dodson, "a full-blooded American Inuit chief originally from the Aleutian Tribes of Alaska." He described the name as a "term of endearment," saying, "When we were on the reservation, we would call each other, 'Hey, what's up, redskin?' " It was later discovered he was neither a chief nor full-blooded Indian — but not before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell used Dodson as an example in support of the name in a letter to members of Congress.

"This is part of a disturbing, but hardly surprising, pattern of behavior by team owner Dan Snyder and his team," said Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray L. Halbritter, who has led a campaign to force the team to change its name. He condemned the hiring of Farley and Edwards, whom he described as someone "who financially harmed Native Americans."

Edwards is not named in the inspector general's report and instead is referred to as the CEO of the law enforcement association, NNALEA.

The report said the association's proposal stated it would "refer 500 'qualified candidates' to serve in law enforcement positions at various Indian reservations." In the end, 104 applicants were either too young or too old, several did not have driver's licenses, and 47 lacked the educational requirements, according to the report's findings, which were first reported by USA Today.

Edwards had also told the bureau's human resources deputy director that he would focus his recruitment efforts in Indian country, according to the report. But only about 4 percent of the applicants were Native American.

Auditors found discrepancies in the work claimed versus what was actually done. The organization said it had participated in a recruiting fair on a reservation, but an official said there was no recruiting booth or representative in attendance. It also claimed to have put an ad in a South Dakota newspaper, but there was no such record.

The report shows that after the contract was terminated, the bureau paid $600,000 in "settlement costs" in violation of federal policy, bringing the total collected by Edward's company to $967,100.''

The report's conclusion: "We found that BIA awarded a defective contract, disenfranchised potential job applicants, and wasted nearly $1 million of Federal funds." It also found that the bureau's failures allowed "NNALEA the opportunity to take advantage of [the Office of Justice Services] to produce unusable contract deliverables."

In a statement, the Bureau of Indian Affairs said that after "the failed contract" with the association, it improved the guidance it provides for the development of future contracts.

Walter Lamar, an 18-year veteran of the FBI and a founding member of the NNALEA, said he was shocked when the report was released. He left the nonprofit association in the mid-1990s because of disagreements with the organization's direction under Edwards.

"The fact that they would have taken a million dollars from those [BIA] coffers that could have been used for putting more officers on the street or giving more resources to officers, I was extremely dismayed at that," said Lamar, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana. "Somebody got paid a million bucks to do virtually nothing."

Lamar and another former founder of NNALEA said they were surprised by the Redskins' appointment of Edwards, if only because it leaves the impression that other Native American law enforcement agents support the team's name.

In a letter this week, Ted Quasula, former director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Law Enforcement Services and a founding member of NNALEA, called Edwards a "friend" who was "wrong on this one."

When the association was formed, he wrote, "Believe me, none of us ever came close to thinking our group or any of its members would be supporting the racist term, redskins! Gary, I like to believe even you, at that time, didn't either."

Mike Jones contributed to this report.

[Valmy]

The Redskins are really acting stupid over this name shit.  Even claiming the club was named that because of their vast respect for native americans.  Um...dude the Redskins were named after the Boston Braves baseball club as a marketing thing. 

[dps]

Um...dude the Redskins were named after the Boston Braves baseball club as a marketing thing. 

Snyder probably doesn't know that.

[sbr]

Commercial that will be airing in 8 "select markets" during tonight's NBA Finals game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-tbOxlhvE