Thursday, June 19, 2014

The Redskins issue.

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, aka, The Bill of Rights.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.[1]
Oddly, the Founding Fathers seem to believe, quite wrongly as it turns out, that only Congress can pass laws.  They must not have envisioned a demi-dictator who can't be bothered to get congressional approval to implement whatever law he wants... or to ignore/modify whatever law he desires.

There is no legal way to force this team to change their name.

None.

The trademark case, which also happened once before, apparently, some 15 years or so ago, will be appealed and, once again, their trademark rights will be upheld.

For most, this seems to be quite innocuous.  The positions are typically emotional in nature, a perception by some that the name in and of itself, denigrates "Native Americans."

Oddly, I am given to understand that some portion of my background is Native American (Likely a great deal more than, say, fake Cherokee Elizabeth Warren) and yet, I don't feel "denigrated."

I'm much more offended by our presidents abuses of office, for example, than I am the butthurt of those offended by a century-old trademark.

"Offense" is a typically bizarre thing in this nation today.  Fear that the few may be offended seems to have the power to force the many to act in certain ways, say (Or not say) certain things... do, or not do certain things.

That's crap, of course, because the fact is that someone somewhere will be offended over almost anything you can imagine.

But how "denigrating" can this name be when I see a picture of surviving Navajo Code-talkers wearing Redskin Jackets?

They're not offended, it would seem.  I defer to them.

The interesting thing about watching football is that it's kind of like working at WalMart, which also butthurts a group of people.

When the WalMart opened in Battle Ground with its hundreds of jobs... and even after it opened... no one held a gun on any of these people who have decided to work there.

Don't like the Redskin logo?

Then don't support the team.  Don't watch them on TV.  Don't buy their stuff.

But don't even think you can force them to change their name.

Now then... is there some reason we can still see Uncle Ben's Converted Rice or Aunt Jemima's Syrup?

Now THAT is racial stereotype at it's best and most obvious.

Odd that no one seems to care about that.

Wonder why?

Leave the Redskins alone.  They've got much bigger problems than this.

If I were their owner, I'd build a logo with Obama's ugly face in it while leaving the rest unchanged... and float the name "The Washington Thinskins."

1 comment:

Lew said...

I guess we can always call them the Washington R-word skins ;-)

Just more OC idiocy.

What will they do now with "RED" skin Potatoes?