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… is from George Will’s most-recent column in the Washington Post [2]; in this column Will discusses the absurd hoopla stirred by Very Sensitive People over the nickname of the professional football team located in Washington, DC – that nickname being “Redskins”:
The fact that censorship is progressivism’s default position regarding so many things is evidence of progressives’ pessimism about the ability of their agenda to advance under a regime of robust discussion. It also indicates the delight progressives derive from bossing people around and imposing a particular sensibility, in the name of diversity, of course.
Despite my having lived in the DC area for most of my adult life, I emphatically am no fan of any DC-area sports team. (I have an instinctive dislike of anything that most Washingtonians like.) But if there is one development that could possibly cause me to cheer for the Redskins it’s the grandstanding, self-righteous, ridiculous objections to the name “Redskins.” People pull for teams that they identify with – teams that make people feel proud to be allied with. The name “Redskins” is certainly not slanderous and demeaning in the minds of the (I’m guessing) three or four million people who are self-proclaimed fans of the Washington Redskins: these people, at least, regard the name as a source of pride. So these fans – and the team’s owners – surely do not intend to insult native Americans.
Although I struggle (without success) to lose all interest in spectator sports, I remain a huge fan of a professional football team named the “New Orleans Saints.” Yet in being such a fan I do not regard myself as pulling for a team that slanders or demeans people who are unusually good and tender-hearted, or one that promotes prejudice against (or even simply encourages ‘insensitivity’ towards) souls who have been canonized by the church of Rome. And if I should awaken one fine morning to discover all of my sins forgiven and whatever less-than-wholesome human appetites I have forever sated – with myself to be led nevermore into temptation – I would still take no offense at the name of the professional football franchise headquartered in the city of my birth. Indeed, I suspect that I would be deeply honored by that nickname.
I could write pages on why I believe it absurd to give credence to the complaints by some over the name “Redskins.” But I’m too busy to participate further in this pow-wow.