Name change should have happened sooner
Re: Redskins drop controversial name, Sept. 20. To me, the name “Redskins” is offensive, disparaging and racist. For anyone who doesn’t have a problem with the name, please listen to those who are saying they are offended, have been offended for years, and those who suffer racist slurs and remarks every day on the streets of Ottawa.
The name “Nepean Redskins” is not as controversial a name as this Citizen article’s headline, however. The “controversy,” rather, is why it took 30 years for the Nepean Redskins football club’s board of directors to realize that they are perpetuating racism and racist stereotypes. I am sure it was “very emotional” for treasurer Evelyn Torley and the board. It’s hard to admit when you are wrong and even harder to take responsibility for your actions and words.
I ask the board to take a hard long look at themselves and their decisions. You don’t have to be racist to perpetuate racism, and ignorance is no excuse. I would be willing to make a donation to the team to help with the name change, but not until the board issues an apology for the use of the name and acknowledges that the name has hurt many over the last 30 years. This name change isn’t about being “politically correct,” this is about finally doing what is right.
JENNIFER LORD,
Ottawa
Wrong means to an end
After succeeding in his campaign to bring about a change of name for the Nepean Redskins, Ottawa musician Ian Campeau, a 32-year-old Ojibway, is left with a question: “I’d like to know whether they did it because of the controversy, or because they think it’s right.”
When we find other people’s behaviour offensive or immoral, there are two ways in which we can attempt to change it. One is through private appeals to reason and conscience, the other, through coercion. The coercion may be illegal (violence, threats of violence) or legal (public shaming, boycotts, lawsuits, human rights complaints, and the like). The coercion may even be carried to the point where the offender is pushed to make a public admission of wrongdoing and guilt. But the one thing coercion can never do is allow us to know whether or not the offender has had a genuine change of heart.
If Campeau really wanted a change of heart as well as a change of name, he chose the wrong means to his end.
JUSTIN LEGAULT,
Ottawa