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A bipartisan pair of lawmakers has written a public letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell demanding that the league he oversees denounce the nickname of the Washington Redskins.
"We are writing to express our disappointment with the National Football League's stance on the name of the Washington football team," Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell and Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole explained. "We also wish to register our objections to your pre-Super Bowl press conference on January 31, 2014, at which you defended the Washington team name as an ‘honor’ to Native Americans. It is, in fact, an insult to Native Americans."
“Let me remind you that this is a name of a football team, a football team that has had that name for eighty years and has presented the name in a way that has honored Native Americans,” Roger Goodell told a reporter at the referenced event attended by Breitbart Sports late last month. “We recognize that there are some that don’t agree with the name and we have listened and respected that. But if you look at the numbers, including in Native American communities, in a Native American community poll, nine out of ten supported the name. Eight out of ten Americans in the general population would not like us to change the name.”
The two politicians objected to the use of the poll of Native Americans as too dated and addressed the more recent poll of all Americans in an oblique manner. "It is clear that you haven't heard the leading voices of this country--and not just Indian Country," Cole and Cantwell said in dismissing Goodell's polling data showing that eight in ten Americans object to changing the name.
"Virtually every major civil rights organization in America has spoken out in opposition to this name including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, the Rainbow Coalition and the League of United Latin American Citizens."
The Oklahoma and Washington lawmkaers called the nickname a "racial slur" and "offensive," and referenced the U.S. Patent and Trade Office possibly revoking the team's trademarks on logos and merchandise.
cont....http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2014/02/09/Legislators-Threaten-NFL-Over-Redskins
"We are writing to express our disappointment with the National Football League's stance on the name of the Washington football team," Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell and Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole explained. "We also wish to register our objections to your pre-Super Bowl press conference on January 31, 2014, at which you defended the Washington team name as an ‘honor’ to Native Americans. It is, in fact, an insult to Native Americans."
“Let me remind you that this is a name of a football team, a football team that has had that name for eighty years and has presented the name in a way that has honored Native Americans,” Roger Goodell told a reporter at the referenced event attended by Breitbart Sports late last month. “We recognize that there are some that don’t agree with the name and we have listened and respected that. But if you look at the numbers, including in Native American communities, in a Native American community poll, nine out of ten supported the name. Eight out of ten Americans in the general population would not like us to change the name.”
The two politicians objected to the use of the poll of Native Americans as too dated and addressed the more recent poll of all Americans in an oblique manner. "It is clear that you haven't heard the leading voices of this country--and not just Indian Country," Cole and Cantwell said in dismissing Goodell's polling data showing that eight in ten Americans object to changing the name.
"Virtually every major civil rights organization in America has spoken out in opposition to this name including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, the Rainbow Coalition and the League of United Latin American Citizens."
The Oklahoma and Washington lawmkaers called the nickname a "racial slur" and "offensive," and referenced the U.S. Patent and Trade Office possibly revoking the team's trademarks on logos and merchandise.
cont....http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2014/02/09/Legislators-Threaten-NFL-Over-Redskins