As the NFL moves toward eradicating the N-word from its playing fields and locker rooms, one of the league’s teams continues to defend its ongoing insistence to be known as the R-word.
For the third time in the last two weeks, the Washington Redskins have issued “Community Voices,” a collection of unverified statements of support for the name that have been spontaneously submitted to the team without solicitation.
The four unverified pieces of correspondence released on Monday come under the following introductory paragraph: “The Native American community faces many challenges, such as insufficient healthcare, high unemployment and substandard housing, but our name is not an issue their community is focused on. When asked about our name, the American people, including Native Americans, understand the pride and heritage it represents. Below are a few more messages we have received from the Native American community.”
The four new messages come from “[m]ore than 7,000 letters and emails” received by the team after owner Daniel Snyder published an open letter in October 2013 defending the team’s name. The organization claims that the group included “almost 200 people who identified themselves as Native Americans or as family members of Native Americans,” and that only seven letters from Native Americans opposed the name.
It’s the third collection of letters of support published by the team since February 10. At the rate of three or four per weeks, this will last for an entire year.
Which means that, by the time the tank is empty, we’ll be one year closer to the inevitable changing of the name.