Poll of the Day > Black Guy wearing 'White/Caucasian' Logo/Mascot Shirt goes viral...

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faramir77 posted...

I got in an argument with a friend yesterday about the Redskins name.

90% of Natives don't care. The outrage about this is almost exclusively from white people. If the people who the name supposedly offends are overwhelmingly not offended, why bother changing it.

If 10% of them do care though, is it really that big of a deal to just choose a different name?

Major sports teams have changed their names for far lesser reasons
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The only thing that bothers me about that shirt is that the Redskins parody isn't blonde hair and blue eyes.
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Mead posted...

If 10% of them do care though, is it really that big of a deal to just choose a different name?

Major sports teams have changed their names for far lesser reasons

Because there are more people that would complain and contest the name changing than there are people who genuinely want it changed and are of the descent in discussion.

It's not right, but it's reality.

I've heard many times before that "the majority of natives don't care" but 90% sounds way wrong. You don't really see poll numbers that lopsided unless you're talking about something very extreme, and I don't think "I'm not a fan of this racial slur" is that extreme. I don't know that the polls they do on the name are exactly very scientific either, there is probably a lot of bias (in either direction) and not a significant sample. I've heard both things but the result almost always seems to match the opinion of whoever's reporting it, and it's usually only like 100 people.

The team could just change the name anyway, like Mead said. They're just being stubborn at this point. And they've been a laughingstock in the NFL for ages regardless of the name. But the name certainly makes it even easier to make fun of them when they do something else stupid.

Lastly, maybe some white or other non-native people are just uncomfortable with saying it? That doesn't necessarily mean they're getting offended on somebody else's behalf.

A little bit, yeah.

Somewhere between 6 and 10% of people think the moon landing was staged. Listening to the sensitivities of such a small segment of people is a waste of time.

"Redskin" is a rude term, yes. But it's a damn sports team. It's not subjugating anyone. If enough native people become offended by it, then they can change.

The "Caucasians" shirt that guy made only illustrates how much of a non issue this is. He tried to offend, and nobody worth anything actually cared.
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Not the same things at all. First, as I've already said, I doubt that the numbers really are very close to 10%. Secondly, there's a difference between believing in debunked conspiracy theories and having an opinion about a racial slur. Thirdly, changing a sports team isn't really that big of a deal. It's not really comparable to the impact that would happen if the US came out and said they fabricated one of the landmark events in human history

Chewster posted...

I've heard many times before that "the majority of natives don't care" but 90% sounds way wrong. You don't really see poll numbers that lopsided unless you're talking about something very extreme, and I don't think "I'm not a fan of this racial slur" is that extreme. I don't know that the polls they do on the name are exactly very scientific either, there is probably a lot of bias (in either direction) and not a significant sample. I've heard both things but the result almost always seems to match the opinion of whoever's reporting it, and it's usually only like 100 people.

Yeah, I don't know enough about the poll but a sample size of 504 is way too small considering the overall population of Native Americans in the U.S.
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Mead posted...

If 10% of them do care though, is it really that big of a deal to just choose a different name?

Major sports teams have changed their names for far lesser reasons

The minority shouldn't dictate the majority just because they just scream loud.

Chewster posted...

Lastly, maybe some white or other non-native people are just uncomfortable with saying it? That doesn't necessarily mean they're getting offended on somebody else's behalf.

Bullshit.
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