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FCC + 'Redskins'

Should the FCC ban usage of the word 'Redskins' in broadcasts?

  • Total voters
    57
Jack Hays said:
Sitting Bull "came in" a couple of years later, and eventually starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. As American as apple pie.
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I meant at the time of the Little Big Horn, but touche all the same.
 
Zyphlin said:
Often doesn't mean always

Common usage of today doesn't necessarily indicate common usage of 80 years ago

Dictionaries don't define proper nouns. No dictionary in the world defines the Redskins, as a team name, as derogatory

Even if one wants to throw out the social differences (which is ridiculous to do, but let's play along), Claims that nigger and redskin are inherently equal and exactly alike is still ridiculous given the etymological history of how each term came to be

If one suggests the acceptance of a potential insulting word has no baring on whether or not it's an insult, then said person should be calling for similar FCC censoring of the ethnic slurs Yankee and Canuck
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Another problem I have is that people believe that if you are racist to one group (blacks) you automatically must be racist to all groups (including native americans). I know a lot of old people (some related to me) that think of blacks as "lazy" "deadbeats" "welfare recepients" all that stuff. However, they will also be the first to say that they got a raw deal, and we should be giving land BACK to the Native Americans. There were a lot of Westerns coming out in the first half of the 20th century, and none that I recall (sure there were some, but none I've caught my grandmother watching) showed them in a negative light. In fact, many times they are revered, even better than the white man.
 
Hamster Buddha said:
I'll give you this, clearly some people take it as an insult (though if you understood the history of that organization in particular, you'd know it's not meant as such.) I will say this though, we need a new poll on the topic, and not a limited one done where one side cherry picks. If a majority of Native Americans said they had a problem with it (which there is substantial evidence to say this is not the case, including that poll done back however many years ago) then I would not only be open to changing the name, but I would go so far as to say let them pick the new one. Until that day where we fair poll, then all the noise to me is being done by a very vocal minority.
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It doesn't matter what they meant. Words having actual meaning. We can't make words mean what we want them to mean just because that is what we want. They already have meaning. No poll changes that. It's not a popularity thing. It's a definition thing.
 
Bodhisattva said:
And if you look up Native American tribal names you sometimes find that they are insults themselves... Apache means enemy, in another language and Navajo meant large field or valley. So what?
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None of which matters at all. The so what is the word is an insult.
 
Crovax said:
you have confused the word "often" with "always", common mistake
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No confusion. The definition clearly states the meaning of the word is often an insult. That means being taken as one is perfectly correct.
 
Boo Radley said:
No confusion. The definition clearly states the meaning of the word is often an insult. That means being taken as one is perfectly correct.
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And how many times in your life have you heard the word redskin said in a derogatory manner vs how many times have you heard it in reference to the Washington Redskins?
 
Crovax said:
And how many times in your life have you heard the word redskin said in a derogatory manner vs how many times have you heard it in reference to the Washington Redskins?
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Quite a few, having lived by a reservation or three.
 
Boo Radley said:
None of which matters at all. The so what is the word is an insult.
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Not to the vast majority of the people, or Native Americans, it isn't.
 
Crovax said:
And how many times in your life have you heard the word redskin said in a derogatory manner vs how many times have you heard it in reference to the Washington Redskins?
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Never... and I doubt anybody really ever has in modern times. The word is antiquated.
 
Crovax said:
So the only time you hear the word redskin used in a derogatory manner is on a reservation?
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It's where I heard it the most. Other than that, only in pro football have I heard it. But if you think a second, add the two together, you should see the problem.
 
Boo Radley said:
It's where I heard it the most. Other than that, only in pro football have I heard it. But if you think a second, add the two together, you should see the problem.
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Yup. People on the reservation should shut up.
 
Boo Radley said:
It doesn't matter what they meant. Words having actual meaning. We can't make words mean what we want them to mean just because that is what we want. They already have meaning. No poll changes that. It's not a popularity thing. It's a definition thing.
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Tell that to Oxford...



 
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