Nicholet Deschine: The reality of eliminating a racist mascot

Daniel Snyder. The reality is you continue to minimize the knowledge and experience that Native people have by inferring we don’t know what we are talking about and that we don’t know what issues our communities face. The reality is that Native people are the best source for identifying the issues that concern their own communities. One such person, Amanda Blackhorse, a Dine woman, is taking lead to void your team’s trademark through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, on behalf of countless others who identify racial slurs of Native people as contributing towards the societal issues our people face.

The reality is that racism exists. The reality is the term redskins perpetrates negative stereotypes, is demeaning to Native people’s cultures, and the continued use of the term is disrespectful and outdated. The continued use of caricatures and racial slurs of Native people undermine our unique, distinct cultures and identify. The reality is that a multitude of national organizations, such as the National Congress of American Indians and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, support you changing the team’s name.

There does need to be a focus on reality and this starts with you realizing the reality at hand is there is an increasing voice supporting you to change the name.