62 High Schools in 22 States Use the "Redskins" Moniker and Are PROUD

.....AND the majority of these teams are native Americans!!! Not only this team in Arizona.....but there were 62 high schools in 22 states using the Redskins moniker last year, according to a project published by the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service. In addition to Red Mesa, two others are majority Native American. They are proud as hell of their monikers and proud to be native Americans and Redskins. It's only the political activist who try to make a big racist deal out of this. But, of course, this is what they do....try to make everything about race and to divide. These players and these high schools reject the notion that their team’s nickname is a racist slur. Kudos to ALL OF THEM....for NOT letting the political elites determine their mascot names. Way to go, Redskins!!!!


RED MESA, Ariz. — The fans poured into the bleachers on a Friday night, erupting in “Let’s go, Redskins!” chants that echoed across a new field of artificial turf, glowing green against a vast dun-colored landscape.

Inside the Red Mesa High School locker room, Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” blared on the stereo as players hurried to strap on their helmets and gather for a pregame prayer and pep talk.

“This is your time, right?” the team’s assistant coach demanded.

“Yes, sir!” the players shouted. “Redskins on three! Redskins on three! One, two, three, Redskins!”

The scene at this tiny, remote high school was as boisterous as it was remarkable: Nearly everyone on the field and in the bleachers belongs to the Navajo Nation. Most of the people in Red Mesa not only reject claims that their team’s nickname is a slur, they have emerged as a potent symbol in the heated debate over the name of the more widely known Redskins — Washington’s NFL team. More than half the school’s 220 students eagerly accepted free tickets from the team for an Oct. 12 game near Phoenix, where they confronted Native American protesters who were there to condemn Washington’s moniker.

None of that mattered to the Red Mesa Redskins as they marched onto the field for their game against the Lobos of Many Farms High School. It was homecoming, and the players knew they needed to keep winning if they wanted to make their first appearance in the state playoffs in five years.

Red Mesa students, parents and alumni stamped the bleachers, clutching signs that read “Fear the Spear” and “Redskin Nation.”


Red Mesa High School football player Kai Lameman leads the team on a march during a homecoming parade Oct. 16.

Sitting in the front row, Superintendent Tommie Yazzie basked in the crowd’s festive mood and in the sight of the newly built football field, which cost nearly $400,000 in federal aid at a school that struggles to pay for computers and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms.

“This is one of the reasons why it’s so hard to change the name,” he said with a smile, trying to make his voice heard over the cheers. “I don’t find it derogatory. It’s a source of pride.”

‘Shame on them’
In the Four Corners area, where Red Mesa sits in northeastern Arizona, that pride is evident in the school’s lone sign advertising its existence off little-traveled Highway 160. The sign features a tall red post emblazoned with the word “Redskins” and the face of a Native American, an image that looks almost exactly like the Washington Redskins logo.

The digital display sign bearing the Red Mesa Redskins logo is near the high school.

Beyond Red Mesa’s campus is a national movement against that name and logo. Across the country and on Capitol Hill, Native American activists, lawmakers, civil rights leaders and sports commentators have denounced “Redskins” as deeply offensive — a position rejected by team owner Daniel Snyder, who contends that it honors Native Americans. He has vowed never to change the name.

One of the country’s most prominent anti-Redskins activists, Amanda Blackhorse, is the lead plaintiff in a legal case that threatens the Washington Redskins’ trademark protection. Blackhorse is a Navajo and lives about an hour’s drive from Red Mesa.


But most in the Red Mesa community dismiss Blackhorse’s cause, or barely know who she is.

“I don’t know what she means that it’s a racial slur,” said Mckenzie Lameman, 17, a junior who is Red Mesa’s student government president. “It’s not a racist slur if it originates from a Native American tribe. . . . It’s always used in the context of sports.”

There were 62 high schools in 22 states using the Redskins moniker last year, according to a project published by the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service. In addition to Red Mesa, two others are majority Native American: Wellpinit High School in Washington state and Kingston High School in Oklahoma."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...fc773a-592b-11e4-8264-deed989ae9a2_story.html

 

I just think it sounds ludicrous. The whiteskins and brownskins sound equally bad.

 

Your opinion. You have a right to it. And they have a right to name their teams and to be proud.

 

Gotta love Mike Ditka who said the campaign to change the name is lead by "politically correct idiots."

"Former New Orleans Saints coach Mike Ditka is one of several NFL analysts to speak out about the Washington Redskins nickname, which is considered racist by many.

Ditka has strong feelings about the nickname and in an interview with RedskinsHistorian.com, Ditka revealed he was staunchly opposed to changing the nickname.

Ditka blames liberals for the "stink" about the nickname and defends it in the interview.

"It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian," Ditka said in the interview. "Even though it was called a Redskin, what are you going to call them? a Proudskin? This is so stupid. It's appalling, and I hope that owner keeps fighting for it and never changes it, because the Redskins are part of American football history, and it should never be anything but the Washington Redskins."

Ditka in the interview said the campaign to change the name is being lead by "politically correct idiots" and said people should leave it alone."

http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2014/08/mike_ditka_to_site_people_who.html

 

I think Dan Snyder is an idiot. He is missing a HUGE opportunity to make a killing!

The re-branding of that team would make a (*)(*)(*)(*) ton of money for him. Imagine the sales alone for folks buying all new gear to get their hands on the NEW jerseys, hats, shirts, etc with the NEW logo and colors!

 

Maybe; maybe not. Point is that he and I believe the vast majority don't want it changed. And since he's stated he will NOT change it.....then case closed. And no one can make him.

 

Good for him. I would change it though. The $$$$ would be tremendous.

 

Dude makes more money than you could ever dream too. Luckily, we live in a world where some people are principles enough not to be fickle over money.