A couple of years ago, at the height of Peak Wokesterism, virtue- signallers insisted that the Washington-based professional football team, the Washington Redskins, change their name, claiming it was offensive to Native Americans.
Turns out the wokesters didn't seem to know much about what Native Americans thought of this, and apparently none of them asked.
Now a Native American group has decided to speak up.
According to the New York Post:
The name of the football team playing in Washington D.C. is once again under question.
A group called the Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) is demanding the Washington Commanders change their name back to the Redskins, organizing support for the name reversal with a petition that has gained more than 90,000 signatures.
“We invite all Americans to stand up for the dignity of EVERY AMERICAN under assault in today’s increasingly nonsensical culture wars,” the petition says.
“This ‘LINE IN THE SAND’ moment reinforces undeniable history of the NATIVE AMERICAN assisting the FOUNDING OF AMERICA, with NATIVE AMERICAN principles used by the FOUNDING FATHERS in the US Constitution – and, EVERY AMERICAN’s right to the 1st and 14th Amendment and not to be targets of cancel culture or ESG.
Which seems pretty damning. Since I've known full-blooded Native Americans who were authentic registered members of tribes, it actually sounds credible. Native Americans don't like constant whining and victim-mongering, and tend to be quite confident and proud of their historic role in building the U.S. I once had a pal from college who got a kick out of saying stuff like "Honest Injun" to white snowflakes, just to freak them out.
How this came about seems to have come from the views of whites and some Native American activists who claimed to speak for all Native Americans, pigeonholing them all into their wokester point of view. That's an offensive thing because it lumps all Native Americans into one monolithic group, when in fact, Native Americans are very diverse.
What the group seems to recognize about this flap over the Washington Redskins is that it's nonsense. The archaic terms 'redskins' is no worse than the other kinds of names given to ethnic groups on some spots teams -- Canucks, Fighting Irish (depicted as drunks), etc. The bottom line is that if you name your champion team for an ethnic group, it's pretty natural that you like and admire something about them. Nobody calls their teams the 'rats' or 'skunks' or 'roaches.'
Worse still, bowing to political correctness on this matter effectively erases Native Americans from any manifestation within public life. Apparently, they must be tiptoed around for fear of giving offense. It's happened more than once in this era of political correctness and cancel culture. When Land O'Lakes got rid of its Native American maiden depiction on its butter boxes sold in stores, the virtue-signallers calling for it had no idea that the original artist was a Native American artist, and yes, there were protests. But the wokesters won out and now the butter boxes are dull and generic, with no Native American on them.
We have seen the same happen with Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima, erasing black faces from the general cultural milieu, while white faces, such as Colonel Sanders and the Quaker Oats guy, continue on with no cancelling.
What's wrong with this picture?
Maybe the snowflakes yelling loudest about erasing images and cancelling cultural institutions should ask the people they purport to champion first before creating their virtue-signalling narratives. They might be surprised at what they find, but one suspects this isnt really about championing Native Americans so much as it is about making noise and virtue-signaling ... to other whites.