Calling a team the “Redskins” is offensive to Native Americans, period. President Barack Obama seems to agree after noting in a recent interview that the Washington Redskins should think about changing their name when considering how many people are offended by its use.
Obama told the Associated Press:
“…People get pretty attached to team names, mascots. I don’t think there are any Redskins fans that mean offense. I’ve got to say that if I were the owner of the team and I knew that there was a name of my team — even if it had a storied history — that was offending a sizeable group of people, I’d think about changing it.
“But I don’t want to detract from the wonderful Redskins fans that are here. They love their team, and rightly so — even though they’ve been having a pretty tough time this year. But I think — all these mascots and team names related to Native Americans, Native Americans feel pretty strongly about it. And I don’t know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real, legitimate concerns that people have about these things.”
Before you get into a huff about why is Obama talking about football and not world policy or the government shutdown, he did. Read the full interview here.
Let us know whether or not you think the Redskins should change their name in the comments.
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Photo: The White House
