John Kane: Racist mascots a sign of racist government policies

Well, now that everyone can feel better about their battle and stance on unacceptable racism in the wake of giving the old “what’s for” to Donald Sterling, the racist owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, we can all go back to settling in with the institutional racism that keeps Daniel Snyder, the equally racist owner of the NFL’s Washington R-word, warm and safe at night. I know “spic,” “wetback,” chink” and the R-word still can appear in print but if the N-word can’t, then, in my book neither can the R-word.

Of course, it is institutional racism – the team, its logo, merchandise and name are trademark-protected, NFL-licensed and owned by a white guy. Not to mention the fact that most Americans are perfectly comfortable with the NFL franchise in their nation’s capital bearing a racial slur for a name.

Now I won’t go off on another rant about how the dictionary defines the word or its history or even the damage the use of the word does to our youth. The simple truth is that a significant number of Native people are offended by it, yet most Americans are only offended by the fact that we are offended. That is to say, how dare we be offended by tens of thousands of mostly white people in red face, feathers, war paint, “costumes” and in an alcoholic stupor making a mockery of Native people? Not only is it not just this team or even just this sport. It’s several teams in almost all sports. And it’s not just the fans that are offensive. The opponents, sportswriters and TV producers can’t resist the clichés or most outrageous comments or visuals. The Eagle’s fan that brings the knife-impaled Indian head to the Washington games with “Red-Skin, Dead-Skin” written on the face, comes to mind.