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New Study Shatters Myth that Native Americans Don’t Care about Name of Washington’s Professional Football Team

2/17/2020

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​In 2016, the Washington Post published the results of a survey purporting to find that only 10 percent of Native Americans were offended by the name and logo of the Washington football team. This winter, Stephanie A. Fryberg and colleagues from the University of Michigan and University of California, Berkeley released the results of their survey which found that on the very same question, 49 percent of Native American respondents found the name to be offensive.
 
Why the huge difference? The Washington Post poll suffered from methodological flaws. It had a relatively small sample size and relied upon respondents to self-identify as Native Americans instead of confirming that the respondents were officially enrolled in tribes. In contrast, the team of psychologists led by Fryberg strove for accuracy by conducting to-date the “largest scientific study of the relationship between Native American identity and attitudes toward Native mascots.” They recruited “a sample of 1,000 Native American participants, which is twice the size of previous polls and would achieve sufficient variation in Native American demographics and identities to test our hypotheses.”

The study is more nuanced than the earlier poll by the Washington Post. It sought to get away from characterizing Native Americans opinions as “a single percentage.” The authors continued that “In reality, many factors (e.g., life experiences, demographics, and social identities) are likely to differentiate Native individuals’ attitudes toward mascots.”

In fact, the authors find that opposition to mascots and fake dances and chants increase the more respondents identify with their culture and participate in religious and cultural activities. For example, 70 percent of respondents that frequently engage in Native American culture find mascot headdresses offensive compared to 38 percent of respondents that do not frequently engage in Native American culture. The study found similar results on questions about the Tomahawk chop and when fans imitate Native dances.

Why does this matter? For starters, most people would be offended if a sports team used a mascot to inaccurately portray their religion or culture. Secondly, as the authors state, “Far from trivial, mascots are one of the many ways in which society dehumanizes Native people and silences Native voices. These representations not only shape how non-Natives see Native people, but also how Native people understand themselves and what is possible for their communities.”

Unfortunately, this study does not have the same megaphone that the Washington Post study has. As the authors point out, the Washington Post has a readership of 86 million people whereas Native American journals typically have readerships of around half a million. Rebrand Washington Football (RWF) will do our part to publicize the implications of this study and we hope others will also.

Authored by Stephanie A. Fryberg, Arianne E. Eason, Laura M. Brady, Nadia Jessopa, Julisa J. Lopeza, the study is called, “Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots.” It will be published later this month in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
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We hope that team owner Mr. Snyder and his staff at Washington football team headquarters read it. 

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Oppose Gambling Push by Snyder

2/10/2020

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Mr. Snyder is lobbying Maryland and Virginia to allow him to build a stadium complete with gambling. Ask your state elected officials to oppose this! Here is a letter RWF wrote. 
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Dear District 16 Delegation:

I am a constituent of yours and also a co-founder of Rebrand Washington Football (RWF), a grassroots organization asking Mr. Snyder to change the name of the team. I am writing to ask you to oppose efforts by Mr. Snyder to allow gambling at his sports venue as described in today's Washington Post. Gambling debases sports and would threaten to compromise the integrity of the team by encouraging cheating and score rigging. It is not the role model for children I would want as a parent. 

In addition, the name of the team is a dictionary defined racial slur. Native American mascots and racial stereotypes demean Native Americans and distort the views of non-Natives regarding the character and worth of Native Americans. RWF reviewed the literature and recently wrote a white paper describing the psychological and sociological harm of Native American mascots.  In addition, a new survey found that most Native Americans do not approve of these mascots. Psychology professors conducted the new survey with scientific methods, in contrast to the Washington Post poll of a few years ago.

We are at a moment where the public sector has maximum leverage. Before any jurisdiction approves of a new or refurbished stadium for Mr. Snyder certain conditions must be met: 1) he changes the name of the team, 2) a stadium rebuild or new construction is completed without public subsidies, and 3) no gambling is permitted. The Kennedy Administration ensured that the first owner of the team integrate his team before being allowed to play on the RFK site. We are now at a similar moment regarding human and civil rights. Please work to secure these conditions from Mr. Snyder if he wants to continue playing in Maryland. 

Sincerely,

Josh Silver
Co-Founder
Rebrand Washington Football

Resident of Bethesda MD in District 16 
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New Book Includes Blast at Snyder, R**skins, “Native Mascotry”

2/5/2020

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By Bill Mosley
David Zirin, sports editor of The Nation and a longtime critic of stereotypical Native American team names and imagery, takes a swipe at the name and owner of the Washington football team in a new book.

We Own the Future:  Democratic Socialism – American Style
is a collection of essays, edited by Kate Aronoff, Peter Drier and Michael Kazin, in which a number of authors explore how socialists of the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stripe might change America if they found themselves in power.  The essays look at the usual front-page issues – economic inequality, racism, policing, climate change, immigration, workers’ rights – as well as a contribution by Zirin on a “socialist” vision of sports.
In his essay, Zirin takes on cities’ sports-stadium giveaways to rich team owners, the exploitation of college athletes, the commercialization of children’s sports, and the persecution of athletes such as Colin Kaepernick who embrace activism along with their athleticism.  But he saves his strongest language for a discussion of the persistence of Native team names and mascots, especially as practiced by the team owned by Daniel Snyder.

Writes Zirin:
If sports and play are truly going to be a place for all, they can’t also be a place where people are marginalized on the basis of race.  That’s why any movement for better sports should also, as a point of pride, stand against all Native American mascotry.
Zirin points to a study – cited in a recent report issued by Rebrand Washington Football -- from the American Psychiatric Association documenting how Native children are harmed by mascots that appropriate and stereotype their heritages.  He then turns his attention to the worst offender:

For decades, Native American activists and allies have fought to get the R**skins [in the book he spells out the word] to change the name.  For decades, they have argued that it is a demeaning insult.  For decades, they have argued that it is the dishonorable product of the team’s original owner, George Preston Marshall, an archsegregationist with a love of minstrelsy whose team was the last in the NFL to sign African American players.

Snyder, the current owner, has refused to listen to these arguments.  “He is a plutocratic brute,” Zirin writes, who “disparages and punishes members of the media who take him to task.  A mass people’s movement should see eradicating his bigotry as a central task.”

A movement, if not yet a mass one, of Native groups and their allies continues to pressure the team to change its name.  Despite Snyder’s claims that the public and even Natives don’t care about the name, continued protests and agitation argue otherwise.  As Snyder stubbornly digs in, sports teams across the country – mostly high schools, but a few colleges – have gotten the message and ditched Native names and mascots.  With outspoken journalists such as Zirin helping to keep the issue before the public, the racist name of the Washington team and other Native names and imagery get pushed a little closer to the rubbish heap of history. 

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    Author

    Josh Silver is one of the founders of RWF and is a life time fan that wants the name changed!

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