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Finally, a new name! Work remains to be done

2/5/2022

On February 2, 2022, the professional Washington Football team changed its name to Commanders. The new name has nothing to do with Native American names or imagery. Victory has been achieved. This victory took decades. Native American advocates including Suzan Harjo and Amanda Blackhorse worked tirelessly for this day. Rebrand Racist Mascots (formerly Rebrand Washington Football) was proud to be part of this and to be able to help.

But victory is still a long ways off. There are upwards of 2,000 high schools that need a rebranding. There are well known professional sports teams that still shamelessly brandish Native American stereotypes, damaging Native Americans and non-Natives alike. We hope that the change for the Washington football team creates momentum for change.

Then there is Dan Snyder and the Commanders. The team has a responsibility to help high schools rebrand who were inspired by the team's former name to engage in Native American stereotyping. The team also needs to settle with the countless women employees who suffered sexual harrassment at the team's toxic workplace. We call on the team to engage in sincere restorative justice. Finally, the use of a military name was not our preference considering the history of oppression of communities of color at the hands of the military and the police.

We want to work with other advocates in other cities with teams that need to rebrand. When the Atlanta baseball team, the Kansas City football team and the Chicago hockey team come to town, you may see us outside the stadiums chanting, "Change the name, change the logo, rebrand your team!"

February 2nd was a triumphant day but also a sobering and humbling reminder of all the work that remains. We remain committed to the cause. Thank you.

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The Shoe Will Drop on a Racial Slur: Popular Pressure Made this Happen

7/2/2020

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The last couple of weeks has been a whirlwind regarding the name of the football team. Events DC removed the monument in front of RFK stadium to George Preston Marshall, the bigoted owner who coined the name. The team then replaced references to Mr. Marshall in its stadium with Bobby Mitchell’s name, the Hall of Fame wide receiver and first African-American player on the team.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Rep. Raúl M.Grijalva, the Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee with jurisdiction over the federal land where the old R-skins stadium sits, have said the name must change if Mr. Daniel Snyder, the owner of the team, wants to bring his team back to DC.

Investors asked Fed Ex, Pepsi, and Nike to end their business relationships with the team unless the name is changed. Fed Ex responded by asking Mr. Snyder to change the name.

The shoe could drop any day now on a racial slur and negative stereotype. Contrary to Mr. Snyder’s assertions, the name does not honor. It demeans and belittles. Native Americans want it changed.

None of this would have happened if it was not for the people in the streets the last few weeks and Native American advocates over the decades. Frederick Douglass had it right: power does not concede anything without a demand. The elected officials and corporations would not have acted if it had not been for the noise from below. If it had not been for Native American advocates like Suzan Harjo and Amanda Blackhorse. If it had not been for the Supreme Court cases and the countless demonstrations before R-skins games at home and away.

Rebrand Washington Football is pleased to have been a part of this, standing on street corners and at Metro stations asking people to sign petitions. And then delivering petitions annually to Mr. Snyder's headquarters each December as a holiday gift. We have been honored to stand with Native American allies and others who have demanded true honor and respect for Native Americans.

By time the sun rises, it could be a new day. We hope Mr. Snyder has a change of heart and understands that a name of a football team cannot be coined after a people. We ask him to engage the community in finding a true name that unites, not divides us. In the meantime, the team can play under the name Washington.

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Mayor Bowser Says Name is a Barrier

6/12/2020

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Today, on a local sports radio program, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says the name is an obstacle to the professional Washington football team relocating to Washington DC. She states that she wants to the team to return but that the name is offensive to many.

The Mayor is using this moment to make a civil rights stand. As has been nationally reported, she commissioned an overnight painting of a large multi-block mural "Black Lives Matter" on 16th Street just a couple of blocks away from the White House. She is correct that Native Lives Matter and that this name is offensive as revealed most recently by a survey conducted by academics of Native Americans.

The Mayor needs to be steadfast and consistent. She has wavered in the past on the name of the team and has worn the team's gear. If she remains committed, this could be the second time that the team would be pressured to enter into modern times when it comes to human rights. In the first instance, the Kennedy Administration refused to lease the land beneath what became RFK stadium to the first owner, George Preston Marshall, who refused to integrate his team until 1962. Bobby Mitchell, the Hall of Fame running back and wide receiver, was the first African-American on the team (RIP Mr. Mitchell). Mayor Bowser could use the lever of economic pressure to urge Dan Snyder to shed a dictionary defined racial slur as the name of his team.

The DC council banned chokeholds and other abusive police tactics this week. Eliminating a name that refers to the scalps of Native Americans would likewise strike a blow for freedom and civil rights.

Mayor Bowser must stand strong. The council would have her back since it passed a resolution asking Mr. Snyder to change the name. Recently, a majority of council candidates answering a RWF survey indicated that they would likewise support a resolution denying any support from the District for relocating the team to the RFK Stadium site or any other DC location unless it changed its name. Any relocation must also pass muster on a cost-benefit analysis indicating that DC residents would benefit from the relocation of the team instead of the city shelling out millions of taxpayer dollars and residents being displaced by a new or refurbished stadium.

Mr. Snyder must see the name for what it is: a symbol of genocide, not an honor. It must go like the statutes to Confederate generals and Christopher Columbus.

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Blackout Tuesday” Blowback Sends Snyder a Message: The Name Must Go

6/10/2020

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By Bill Mosley
The blowback against the Washington professional football team for its hypocritical participation in the “ Blackout Tuesday” campaign is another indication that the time is now to change its name.
Dan Snyder’s team joined the call to post a black square on social media feeds on June 2 as a sign of solidarity with the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests – only to be hammered by members of the public who were aware that the team engages in casual and callous racism every day of the year.
Many celebrities called the team out on its hypocrisy, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, writer Kashana Cauley and actor George Takei, and sportswriters Dave Zirin, Christine Brennan and Mike Florio.
Not only does the team bear a name that is a dictionary-defined racial slur, but it also has a long legacy of racism for which it has never fully atoned. The team’s founder, George Preston Marshall, was a racist and segregationist who gave the team its offensive name. Marshall refused to sign a black player until 1962, and then only when pressured to do so by the Kennedy administration as a condition for being able to play in DC Stadium (later called RFK Stadium) which was built on federal land. Washington thus became the last NFL team to integrate.
The team’s Blackout Tuesday fiasco was another indication that the public is becoming more aware just what the team’s name means to Native Americans – it is reminder of a a legacy of displacement, genocide and enforced poverty. Today, Native Americans suffer further with one of the highest incidences of COVID-19 infections and deaths among ethnic groups, an unfortunate distinction they share with other communities of color.
At a time when the national spotlight is being turned on need to fight for racial justice, pressure must be turned up on Snyder’s team to do the right thing and change the name. Calling the team (703-726-7000) and the NFL (855-265-6894) to demand a name change would be one way to turn up the heat. (NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell could be encouraged to broaden his belated acknowledgement that “black lives matter” to include eliminating all vestiges of racism in his own sport.) Signing Rebrand’s “Change the Name” petition is another way to keep up the pressure. At the very least, Snyder can stop pointing the finger of racist accusation against others until his own house is in order.
Now that the nation’s attention has turned to the need to root out racism in our society, what better time than now to change the last remaining team name in major professional sports that is a racial slur by definition? If Richmond’s statue of Robert E. Lee can come down, so can the racist name of the team headquartered in the same state. There is no such thing as a little racism. It all must go.

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Why, as a Jew, do I care so much about the R-skin name and mascot?

4/5/2020

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In 2015, I co-found Rebrand Washington Football (RWF) with Ian Washburn and Bill Mosley. Our grassroots group asks Mr. Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington R-skins, to change the name and mascot of his professional football team because the name is a dictionary defined racial slur. Our major activity is public education. We gather petitions at Metro stations and farmers markets; each December we deliver the petitions to R-skins headquarters. We mostly receive sympathetic responses, but sometimes a name defender asks whether we have better things to do.

This essay is my response to that question as a Jew. If a racial or ethnic group of people are called stereotypical names, simple justice can never be realized by that group. For Jews and Native Americans, the name calling dehumanized a people that contributed to genocide. In the present day, Native American mascots perpetuates racial stereotypes that lead people not familiar with Native Americans to dismiss them and their continuing struggle to overcome centuries of oppression. Those not familiar with Native Americans tend to think that mascots honor Native Americans or that it is not a significant matter because Native Americans are not around any longer.

The coronavirus pandemic is another reminder of why racial stereotyping is so pernicious. The President has taken to calling the virus, the Chinese virus. Recently, Rep. Judy Chu, the chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, stated it was dangerous for the President to continue to refer to the virus in this manner, referring to an uptick in hate crimes committed against Asians. Journalists and academics have recorded a surge of hate crimes as well.

The Jewish perspective on stereotypes

Jews are very familiar with a people being scapegoated and labelled as the bearers of plagues or other calamities. Antisemites throughout the centuries have accused Jews as being Christ-killers. There is nothing more conducive to pogroms and other atrocities committed against Jews than to accuse them of being the persecutors of Jesus. This twisted antisemitism only grew in Europe over the centuries. Eastern Europe was the birthplace of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a screed asserting that Jews were intent on global political and economic domination. It is ironic how an oppressed minority could be powerful enough to be intent on domination, but I guess if a people killed Jesus, they could be capable of any type of atrocity.

The journalist Pavel Krushevan was the first to publish the Protocols. Antisemites committed a particularly brutal pogrom in Krushevan’s city of Kishinev, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1903 as described poignantly in Steven J. Zipperstein’s recent book.

The allegations of global domination most likely also arose as a result of the stereotype of Jews as greedy money seekers. Discrimination against Jews caused the stereotype of greed. Jews were confined to certain occupations, many of which centered on commerce. Jews were highly visible as merchants and bankers. Just as with Native American mascots, this image of Jews as greedy capitalists persists today. The Aalst Carnival in Belgium has featured insidious Jewish parade floats two years in a row; this year, it was Jews with ant abdomens and legs and last year, it was Jews holding money and grinning. UNESCO, a United Nations educational agency, withdrew its recognition of the carnival as a heritage event. Also, this year, a parade in Spain mocked the Holocaust with Nazi soldiers and Jewish prisoners happily marching and dancing down a street.

The experiences with Jewish mascots and stereotypes makes Jewish leaders particular sensitive to and outspoken against verbal and written abuse. Rabbi Daniel Stern, for example, stated in a sermon that the Torah teaches:

Verbal assaults can be so pernicious and poignant because they are not targeted at the external body which is naturally trained to heal over time, but rather with intent to harm the soul of a person, to diminish their self-worth, significance, and contribution. For this reason, the recovery process from the emotional wounds of hurtful comments can be complex and prolonged, and can never be confined to a financial settlement or mitigated by monetary compensation.

It is in the context of Jewish history and its religious teachings that I am so adamant against mascots and stereotypes that hurt any people. For a professional team in the nation’s capital and in a region in which I reside to perpetuate racial stereotypes rubs against the core of my Jewish soul.

Native American mascots do not honor, they demean and erase

The history of Native American mascots and stereotypes is insidious just as the taunts against Jews. American colonization was justified as a war against barbarous brutes. Writing about the name of the Washington football team, C. Richard King states:

Native American mascots have very little to do with Native Americans. They do not represent indigenous men and women. Much like blackface, such inventions and imaginings, meant to represent a racial other, tell us much more about Euro-Americans….They reflect and reinforce the fundamental features of racial and gendered privilege in a settler society, particularly a sense of entitlement to take and remake without consent and to do so without the burden of history, the challenges of knowing, or the risk of penalty.

The historical uses of mascots and stereotypes to assert domination have devastating psychological and sociological impacts. In a recent review of the scholarly literature, RWF reported that psychological studies and surveys concluded that mascots injure the self-esteem of Native Americans, particularly youth, and perpetuated negative attitudes among non-Natives of Native Americans.

Some may reply that a Washington Post survey found that most Native Americans (90 percent) were not offended by the name and mascot of the Washington football team. However, this February, 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,” according to their study. 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 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.

Conclusion: I cease to be a Jew if I do not care about this

As a Jew, Fryberg’s study makes sense to me. If I was not observant or did not participate in Jewish life, I may not care that much about stereotypes. But since Judaism is important to me and I am a periodic participate in Jewish life and religion, the stereotypes offend because they do not represent who I am or the depth of my understanding of Judaism or what it means to be a Jew. Moreover, as a student of history and social psychology, I am crystal clear about the harms and hate crimes that mascots and stereotypes perpetuate. Just remember Kristallnacht or the Night of the Broken Glass to see how stereotypes crystallize hate and destruction.

Our country cannot be free of racism and its destructiveness until we dispense with sports mascots that perpetuate stereotypes. Not only must the Washington R-skins discard their name and logo, must also all the other professional teams with Native American names and mascots. All teams at all levels must do so and follow the lead of 2,000 high schools and numerous colleges that have done so.

I cease to be a Jew if I do not care about this. We are less human until we discard our collective racism. Change the name, change the logo, Rebrand Washington Football!

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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.

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.

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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Montgomery County Council – Pass a Resolution to Ask Team to Change the Name!

1/13/2020

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County Executive Marc Elrich has promised to introduce a resolution asking Mr. Snyder to change the name of his team. Please email Mr. Elrich and the Council to ask them to do this soon!

Council: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/members/index.html
County Executive contact information:
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/exec/staff.html#contact

Rebrand Washington Football (RWF) is a grassroots advocacy group organizing this effort. Email us at rebrandwf@gmail.com if you have any questions or let us know you sent a letter. Our website is http://www.rebrandwf.org.

Sample Letter

Dear member of the county council:
It is our understanding that County Executive Marc Elrich will be introducing a resolution asking Mr. Snyder to change the name of the professional Washington football team. The name of the team is a dictionary defined racial slur that perpetuates stereotypes and demeans Native Americans.
In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) passed a resolution calling for the immediate retirement of Native American mascots in schools and athletics in part because the APA determined that such mascots were detrimental to the learning environment of both non-Native and Native youth. Over 2,000 high schools have dropped Native American names and mascots and 28 have dropped the name R-skins.
In 2013, the District of Columbia Council passed a resolution asking Mr. Snyder to change the name of the team. The Arlington County Board followed in 2015.
If Montgomery County also adopts a resolution, local governments would be sending a strong signal to Mr. Snyder that it is time to change the name. A resolution would also serve as a valuable educational tool, increasing awareness in Montgomery County about the harms caused by the name and logo of the football team.
Please pass a resolution asking Mr. Snyder to change the name of his team.

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RWF Offers to Pay for Removal of Marshall Monument

11/3/2019

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RWF sent a letter to District Mayor Muriel Bowser offering to pay for the removal of the George Preston Marshall Monument that stands in the front entrance of RFK stadium. Mr. Marshall was the first owner of the team and an avowed segregationist. He coined the racist name. Read the letter and press release here:

letter_to_mayor_bowser_rwf_will_pay_for_removal_of_gpm_statue.pdf
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rwf_gpm_pr_1119.pdf
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