Redskin [red-skin] (noun, Older Slang: Disparaging and Offensive): 1. a contemptuous term used to refer to a North American Indian.
The fact that a dictionary-defined offensive term remains the name of a professional football team has been a heated topic for years. The debate has picked up recently with many publications, politicians and others saying it's time to change the name. On Thursday, The Washington Post published a poll and an accompanying story under the headline, "New poll finds 9 in 10 Native Americans aren’t offended by Redskins name."
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This poll surveyed 504 people who identify as Native American across every state, and was conducted over a five-month period. The results were surprising to those who read them, and not everyone was happy with the story.
"Another day, another misrepresentation," Taté Walker, an award-winning journalist of more than 13 years and current editor at Native Peoples Magazine, told Omnisport in an email. "Like we as Native people are constantly hit with microaggressions that diminish our identities, from Hillary Clinton's 'off the reservation' remark, to Trump's 'Pocahontas' comment toward wannabe Elizabeth Warren. And no one really cares about the devastating impacts these daily aggressions have on the Native psyche, which often plays out as suicide among our young people. When you don't exist in mass media and pop culture, it's hard to exist in general."
Walker, an enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, criticized how the poll was conducted and said the numbers don't add up to the publication's claim.
"The numbers don't justify the salacious headlines," she told Omnisport. "The Washington Post poll surveyed just 504 people; that's .01 percent of the total U.S. Native population (estimated at 5.4 million). How is .01 percent representative of ANY population?"
Hey @washingtonpost, saw the survey. You found 373 Natives who don't find "Redsk*ns" offensive? Here's 5859 who do: https://t.co/gCwFRFYZ1a
— Dr. Adrienne Keene (@NativeApprops) May 19, 2016
Of the 504 surveyed, only 44 percent claimed to be enrolled in a Native American tribe. Walker said this is a big deal because "a lot of people are quick to claim Native heritage but are unwilling to claim the issues that go along with it."
"Native identity has everything to do with community and familial ties," Walker told Omnisport. "While there are legitimate reasons someone who is Native might not be able to claim that identity (say, adoption), for the most part, it's easy for people to simply say 'I'm Native' without having to do any of the hard work that goes along with claiming that identity (such as advocating for fair and accurate representation in mass media/pop culture)."
Jennifer Falcon, a writer for Indian Country Today, agrees.
"The polling size is small and they didn't go out of their way to talk to Native tribal communities," she said in an email to Omnisport. "It feels like a major newspaper is telling us that Redskins is okay. No matter how many polls, Redskin is a term rooted in racism and genocide.
"I think (less than half of respondents not being enrolled in a tribe) can be indicative of how skewed the poll is and raises a valid question of if they were really speaking to Indian Country."
The Post interviewed several Native Americans who said the word didn't bother them. In fact, 80 percent of those polled said they would not be offended if a NON-Native American person called them the slur. While the majority make that claim to the Post, those feelings were opposed by Walker and Falcon.
"For as long as I can remember my family has been offended by the usage of Redskin," Falcon told Omnisport. "Growing up in a very white neighborhood I have been called this word unkindly many times."
Just like with any race of people, not everyone is going to feel the same way about everything. But concerns about The Post's poll are valid in that it didn't reach a wide population of Natives. It's a bold claim to say 90 percent of Native Americans don't care about the term redskin, especially when the majority of them don't identify as a tribe member. While the poll is something to consider, it's not a be-all end-all opinion of the people it claims to represent.
