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Page A-38 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, July 9, 2020
CITY OF SHELTON
ADULT RECREATION SOFTBALL
L ' k f r pl
Wasted Talent’s Joel Thompson watches the infield action after making a
catch in
right fieldMonday at Callanan Park in Shelton during a City of Shelton
adult coed
recreational softball league game. See-more photos from the first day of
league
play on A-10 and 1 1. Journal photo Justin Johnson ‘
FAB POST
Time far a name
change in D.C.
New York City carried as its mascot a derogatory term
for Black people.
Or, what if a team in Los Angeles used a racial epithet
for Latino people as its mascot.
It wouldn’t happen.
So why does the National Football League allow the
Washington, D.C., franchise that plays
in Landover, Maryland, to continue to
use a derogatory reference to Native
Americans?
It’s time for a change.
Since the murder of George Floyd by
a police officer in Minneapolis in late
May sparked protests and rallies from
coast to ceast, many Americans are
beginning to have eye-opening conversa-
tions with people of color about the chal-
lenges they face.
The debate about the disparaging
slang term that Washington identifies
Imagine for a moment if a professional sports team in
By JUSTIN
. JOHNSON
as its mascot is not a new one. It’s gone on for years, dating
back to lawsuits filed in 1992.
In 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the
United States Patent and Trademark Office voted to cancel
six trademarks held by the team, determining thattheterm
was disparaging to a substantial number of Native Ameri-
cans.
Before the case was appealed, the US. Supreme Court
ruled in 2017 in a similar issue that trademarks are pri-
vate, not government speech, and that the clause of the
Lanham Act which prohibited registration of trademarks‘
that may disparage persons, institutions, beliefs or national
symbols -— violated the First Amendment. ’
Legally speaking, there is no mechanism to make the
Washington, D.C., team change its name, but with height-
ened attention to social issues, many of the team’s key
/*‘-"""
sponsors have requested the team change its mange-("Mi
That includes FedEx, which has the naming rights to the
team’s home stadium, PepsiCo, Nike and Bank of America,
according to Associated Press reporting. ,
President Donald Trump predictably tweeted about the
issue, claiming that the name of Washington’s NFL team
and Cleveland’s MLB team was named “out of STRENGTH,
not weakness,” before calling it politically correct and at-
tempting to disparage US. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Let’s be clear, this change is overdue. For both Washing-
ton and Cleveland.
Nothing is positive about using a word that is defined in
the dictionary as offensive.
This isn’t the University of Utah Utes or the Florida
State University Seminoles,- both major university athletic
departments that have the backing of regional tribes in
their respective areas. ‘
The Associated Press reported Monday that more than
a dozen Native American leaders and organizations sent a
letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell calling for the
league to force Washington owner Dan Snyder to change
the name immediately. ‘
Snyder last week committed to a “review” process re-
garding the team’s name, but has refused to consider
changing the team’s name multiple times since buying it in
. 1999.
Crystal Echo Hawk, founder of the nonprofit organiza-
tion IllumiNative, which seeks to “increase the visibility
of and challenge the negative narrative about — Native
nations and peoples in American society,” according to its .
website, told The Associated Press last month that, “We’ve
never been faced with a greater opportunity and moment
for this to finally happen.”
“Native Americans have been working and fighting on
this issue for decades, decades and decades, andl think
really talking with different Native leaders'around the
country, this is the moment. There’s really no excuse now
for this Washington team and for the NFL to do the right.
thing.” V .
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I Justin Johnson is the Sports Outdoors Editor for the
Shelton-Mason County Journal. He can be reached by email
at justin@masoncounty.com.