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High school board votes to ban ‘Redskins’ mascot

By Cory Buck

Oct 12, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Detailed view of the Washington Redskins logo on a helmet during the game against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Redskins 30-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 12, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Detailed view of the Washington Redskins logo on a helmet during the game against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Redskins 30-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Lancaster High School Board of Education voted unanimously to dismiss its Redskin mascot amid protests.

The case for using racial slurs as your team mascot is getting thinner and thinner. It’s also getting less and less support at a grassroots level. As a result, another high school has banned the term Redskin from being applied to its sports teams.

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WIVB news in Buffalo, New York reports that the Lancaster High School Board of Education voted unanimously to dismiss its Redskin mascot and logo because, well, it’s a dictionary-defined racial slur and duh, why would anyone still have that as their mascot–oh, right.

“This is about the children, and teaching them to respect and embrace all people,” Board of Education Member Kim Nowak said.

Naturally, there was another side to this debate. As WIVB notes, “Many locals at the meeting were in an uproar; they say the name is a term which makes them think of the school, and of school pride, one with positive connotations.”

Ah, yes, there’s nothing like a word that literally identifies an entire sect of people purely by the color of their skin as perceived by fur trades 200 years ago. These people must be beaming with pride over their clever nickname.

As for those actually affected by the word, progress has been slow and really only tangible at this level for now. The mecca of racism, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, remains stoutly in favor of his racist team nickname and his fans mostly stick behind for the same reasons these dim parents stick behind their alma mater’s nickname. Because that’s how things have always been.

We probably don’t need to get into what a horrible argument tradition makes, but suffice to say reading the comments in the WIVB article (or likely even this article) should give you an indication of how dug-in this sect has become over a word that means nothing to them but represents centuries of degradation to an underrepresented race in America.

Good on the Lancaster Board of Education for taking a stand on a word that is, again, a dictionary-defined racial slur. Their sports teams can play under a new name with a new tradition that involves not being wildly obtuse and racially insensitive, even if it comes at the expense of the approval of those who are in fact obtuse enough to believe that the word Redskin has a single positive connotation.

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