#ChangeTheMascot

So you get on your car and turn the radio on, the first thing you hear is news about the Washington Redskins Football Team, but the word “redskins” slips through without you giving a second thought to the fact that the word “redskins,” which is now most commonly used to report the American football team, has a background of being used to address a race in very offensive manner. Nowadays, most of us can use the word “redskins” with no shame because we’ve grown accustomed to it, but when it comes to nigger, we might say the “N-word” or something relative to that but not the exact word because of its racist background. But why is that? Shouldn’t it be the same thing? Yes, it should. There should be no difference because both of them have a racist background.

The Washington Redskins, along many other different sports teams such as the Florida Seminoles or the Chicago Blackhawks, should change their mascots’ names to ones that do not offend any kind of race. It does not matter if the owner of the team does not believe the name is taken as an insult like Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Footballl Team. If there’s people out there that get offended because of this, something must be done.

The problem with this or, better said, one of the main issues is that the Native American population is very, very small to the point of their voices not being heard when they try to speak up against the use of offensive terms to describe different sport teams that are not even related to Native American tribes in any way whatsoever. This is the reason why each day more and more take a stance on this social issue.

Many are against the racial slurs that are used for different American sport teams to the point of starting online campaigns such as #changethename and #changethemascot on social networks. As the days go by, more and more join this side of the issue, the side that is against it; even famous people have taken a stance on this and even President Barack Obama.

It should be a sense of morality to know that it is incorrect to use historical derogatory nicknames to represent sport teams of any kind. To make sure that these racist terms are not used for the fun and profits of sport teams, there should be a national law passed prohibiting the use of racial slurs to represent these teams. If something is not done soon, more and more teams will continue to use these offensive names and the Native Americans will completely be ignored even though they are the ones that are affected and hurt by the use of such words because of the horrid history behind them.

But this should not only be the Native Americans fighting against the usage of such terms that are a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping, it should be everyone. We should all join the side that is against the use of those hurtful, offensive, and inappropriate words to symbolize American sport teams and speak up, so that those powerful teams give in to the fact that using such terms is in no way showing pride of a team and end up changing them to terms that do not offend anybody.