Politics, sponsors and journalists demand to change the name of the Washington Redskins team because it offends the Indians

The owner of the club promised that he would never do this

The company Fedex, whose name is the stadium, which plays the National Football League (NFL) team, Washington Redskins, on July 2 called on the owner of the club Daniel Snider to change the name and logo of the team - many consider them offensive to the Indians. They demand to renam the franchise for many years - but if before, only human rights groups were done by this, then against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement, politicians, the media and large companies joined this demand. Snyder himself, who repeatedly declared that he will never change the name of the team, will not comment on the situation yet.

The Washington Redskins team appeared in 1932 - in those years, the practice of assigning names for Indian themes was quite common. Since the 1990s, human rights activists began to raise the issue of the need to abandon such names, considering them offensive to the Indians: “Washington Redskins” at the same time attracted special attention due to the most popular sport in the United States, and are also in the capital of the country. At the same time, periodic surveys of fans - as well as the inhabitants of the United States who attributed themselves to the Indians - showed that most of them do not see anything offensive in the name of the Washington team.

In the past 10 years, the name of the name has become increasingly required; The pressure on the club also intensified because it was massively abandoning the names that began to be considered non -prunate, many teams of schools and colleges began. At the same time, the owner of Redskins, businessman Daniel Snyder, who bought the club in the late 1990s, always consistently stated that he would not go to this step. “I will never change the name. Everything is very simple. Never - you can print it with a capslok, ”he said , in particular, in an interview with USA Today in 2013.

Supporters of the name change were closer to success in 2014, when the Patent agency canceled the registration of Redskins trademarks, considering them “insulting to indigenous Americans” - this, in particular, jeopardized the “Washington” of income from the sale of club products. In 2017, however, the US Supreme Court, in the framework of another case, found that such restrictions on trademarks violate the right to freedom of speech. Then the Redskins supported the leadership of the NFL and the fans.

With renewed vigor, the requirement to change the name “Redskins” began to sound against the background of large -scale anti -racist performances in the United States. This time the pressure was much more serious - politicians and the media joined the demands. Washington mayor Muriel Bower hinted to the club that the authorities may not allow to build a new stadium on the land belonging to the federal government. The most influential edition of the US capital, The Washington Post, was released with an editorial article on June 19, which required the name of the immediate name of the name: in case of refusal, according to the editorial office, the NFL itself should “use a unique moment in order to finally take the right position.” “It should be very simple. Change the name. Now, ”the newspaper wrote.

In early June, the vandals applied the inscription “Change the name” to the statue of the founder of the George Marshall team, standing in front of the stadium, where “Redskins” performed until 1996. Marshall, successfully led the club for several decades, is known for the fact that in the 1950-1960s, when black players appeared in the league, for many years they fundamentally refused to take them to the team. The company managing the stadium, after the appearance of the inscription, dismantled the statue, calling it "a long -bearing step." The club itself a few days later removed the name of Marshall from the team hall of Glory.

Finally, they began to exert financial pressure on the team. After collective requests from their investors, letters demanding to abandon the name of the leadership sent the largest sponsors of Washington - Pepsico and Nike, the clothing manufacturer also removed all the products with the Redskins logo from their store. Following them, a similar call was made by Fedex - a company whose name is the home stadium of the team; Its CEO Frederick Smith is also a Washington minority shareholder.

Update. On July 3, Washington distributed a statement stating that the “Light of Recent events” The club “carefully examines” the issue of changing the name. NFL stated that she supports such an intention, and also noted that in recent weeks she discussed the name of the club with its owner.

Grigory Levchenko