Huckleberries Online

Court Upholds Redskin Trademark

Posted by DFO

May 15, 2009 9:55 a.m. • 8 comments

The Washington Redskins won another legal victory this morning in a 17-year fight with a group of American Indians who argue the football team’s trademark is racially offensive. The decision issued Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington doesn’t address the main question of racism at the center of the case. Instead, it upholds the lower court’s decision in favor of the football team on a legal technicality. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

Question: Should the Washington Redskins get with the times and jettison the offensive trademark “Redskins”? Or should they continue to fight for the traditional name?

Eight comments on this post so far. Add yours!

BlueinIdaho on May 15 at 10:11 a.m.
Get rid of it. If they called themselves “Indians”, I don’t believe the opposition would be that much, but “redskins”? Just smacks of a racial slur. How about the Washington Whiteboys? Oh, wait….
JamesBond on May 15 at 10:20 a.m.
I’m not a person who thinks names like “Warriors” or even “Indians” and similar names are in the least bit offensive. The name “redskins” however is comically offensive. Seriously! Yet, the trademark is fine. It’s just the term “redskins” that I think crosses a line.
BethB on May 15 at 10:43 a.m.
In contrast, I am so proud of the Spokane Indians baseball team. A couple of years ago, when they were redesigning their logos, the team went to the Spokane Indians tribal council and asked if they wanted the team to change the name altogether. The tribal council voted and decided that the name should stay the Indians - but ended up playing a role in the changing of the logo. Now the Indians sell caps with an “S” with a feather through it; a cap with the words “Spokane Indians” written in Salish; and various other things like t-shirts etc. This is the only team-tribe combination in the country that created this kind of partnership.
BayviewBob on May 15 at 11:42 a.m.
“This is the only team-tribe combination in the country that created this kind of partnership.”

Well, not exactly.

http://www.fsu.edu/news/2005/06/17/seminole.support/
danj on May 15 at 11:44 a.m.
Great story BethB. Now that is the way it should be done. Good for the Spokane Indians. I used to think the issue was essentially “much ado about nothing”; but not so much anymore. Redskins is durogatory and loaded with negative connotations. I don’t know how anyone could argue otherwise.
JamesBond on May 15 at 11:51 a.m.
I’ve also thought the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo was in poor taste.

The one that really gets me is when Syracuse dropped the name “Orangemen” for “Orange.” The “orangemen” was not a reference to indians or the color of anyone’s skin. It was a name that originated with an old protestant fraternity.

There are plenty of examples of schools changing their names, which is their right, but in most cases the concern is just silly.
BethB on May 15 at 12:00 p.m.
Oops. I thought Spokane was the first. Maybe it was the first to work together on logos… or first professional team to make the connection.

I do know that some Spokanes were upset at the tribal council’s decision and that, in response, one of the sons of Levi McCormack (a Spokane Indians left fielder in the 1940s and a Nez Perce Indian) wrote a letter to the editor saying that he was sure his father would have approved of the bond formed between the tribe and the team.

And, like with the Seminoles, the Indians team and tribe had been building a relationship before the logo decision.
hhuseland on May 15 at 12:57 p.m.
In this politically correct era, I personally think people are way too sensitive. There are more important issues in our lives than these. If you drive down to the Cda reservation, you’ll see signs like,”Indian Smoke Shop and such.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.