Welcome to 21st century
There are many problems facing humanity that defy quick and easy solution.
One of these, however, is not the use of racist or derogatory terms as nicknames for professional sports franchises. Ditching those should have been simplicity itself. You might have thought that, even if these names were adopted in less enlightened times, all it would have taken to right the wrong would have been a few instances of a demeaned group saying the term and associated images were hurtful.
And Lord knows, denigrated groups have spoken up often enough in places where teams were named “Redskins,” or “Indians,” or “Eskimos” (though, tellingly, never “Palefaces” or “Caucasians”) or where they had mascots called “Chief Wahoo” or cheers called the “Tomahawk Chop.”
You might have thought that, once these concerns were raised, simple decency would have prompted a team to say, “Hey, you’re right. How thoughtless of us. Consider it changed.”
After all, you might have thought good corporate citizenship would have placed human dignity above a mere nickname every time. But no. Against all reason, against all demands of civic leadership, all recognition of evolving sensibilities, some pro sports franchises have clung to offensive names as tenaciously as the drowning do to life preservers.
Only this year, in the seismic social aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and under pressure from sponsors, has Washington’s National Football League team agreed to drop the grotesque name “Redskins.”
Only this past week did Edmonton’s Canadian Football League team announce it will consign the 70-year-old nickname “Eskimos” to history’s dustbin.
One supposes it’s never too late to do the right thing. But it merits only faint applause to have agreed to do it so belatedly, so reluctantly.
It’s been a long time since any reasonable person could have considered the term “Eskimo” — which scholars say originally meant “eaters of raw meat” or “wearing snowshoes” — as anything but the hangover of a callous colonial past.
Yet even in announcing the change, Janice Agrios, the team’s board chair, was insisting the name had somehow been a tip of the hat to “Inuit values.”
It should have been a clue to Agrios and all franchises in similar situations that no such nickname — no such caricature of peoples — has been selected anywhere for generations.
It should have been a clue that high school and university teams, even grade-schoolers and all manner of youth sports associations, have long since taken to replacing racist nicknames.
It should have been a clue that sports broadcasters were refusing to use the terms when calling games involving those teams.
It should have been a clue when Sen. Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said it was past time to get rid of offensive names that would not be tolerated if they targeted any other cultural or ethnic group.
It should have been a clue when Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said bluntly five years ago: “Inuit are not mascots.”
The change shows not so much a newfound respect as the end of active disrespect. And the two are not the same thing. More work will be needed.
Still, at long last the Edmonton football team will consult the community on a new nickname.
Edmonton Elks (as the team was once called), Edmonton Eagles, Edmonton Elite would all leave the famous double-E logo intact.
There is an almost limitless universe of birds and big cats and fish and mammals and music and colourful occupations and natural phenomena — even coloured hosiery — out there.
In the meantime, it’s nice to welcome the Edmonton football club, by whatever name, to the 21st century.