Origin of word "redskin"

[Jonathan Lighter]

A most significant story, Ron.  And the plaintiffs must have suspected that if they'd asked the proper (and direct) question ("Does the team name '[Washington] Redskins' anger or offend you ?") they'd have gotten the answer they *didn't* want.  What does "hearing" that something is "offensive" got to do with whether it offends you ?

Cheap publicity and a quick score: that's the name of that game. The judge saw right through it.

JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
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In a message dated 5/26/05 3:39:14 PM, wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM writes:


> I'm wondering - genuinely - roughly what percentage of Native Americans
>
> a) truly find "redskin" to be a personally offensive term per se (plenty, I
> would think),
>

The details of the following are a little hazy in my mind, and I am away from
home and cannot check this out exactly, but here is one piece of evidence in
answer to the question.

The attorneys who were trying to block the Redskins' trademark renewal
commissioned a telephone survey in which they asked folks who answered the phones if
they had heard that the term "Redskin" to be "offensive." Approximately 50%
said they did. There was little if any difference between Indians and
non-Indians with respect to response.

The Trademark Board found this persuasive, as I recall. The judge who
overruled them, as I recall, found the telephone survey of little probative value. I
agree with the judge. Many of the 50% positive responses said something like,
"I hear there is a lawsuit going on about this," "I know that Indians are
upset abut the Atlanta Braves and the Tomahawk chop," etc.

It is pretty easy to create a survey question that gets the response that you
want from a high percentage of respondents. I think it is significant that,
though the plaintiffs were the ones commissioning the survey, and though there
were a lot of cultural issues tending to encourage false positives, they still
got only 50% "favorable" results. Moreover, the Indians as a group felt no
more offended by the term than did the non-Indians, suggesting that those who
say, "Well, the bottom line is that people have the right not to be called names
that they do not want to be called" in this particular case have very tepid
support from the very people who might be thought to be referenced by the term
"Redskins." Many Native Americans, I think it is fair to say, are rather proud
of this particular association.


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