American Indians look to high court
We read:
"A group of American Indians who find the Washington Redskins' name offensive wants the Supreme Court to take up the matter. The group late Monday asked the justices to review a lower court decision that favored the NFL team on a legal technicality.
The seven Native Americans have been working through the court system since 1992 to have the Redskins trademarks declared invalid. A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office panel ruled in their favor in 1999, but they've since suffered a series of defeats from judges who ruled that the plaintiffs waited too long to bring their suit in the first place.
A lawyer for the group says he'd like to see the court decide once and for all whether the Redskins name defames Native Americans.
Source
The "technicality" is that they should have complained many years before if they really found use of the name offensive. One could very easily see use of the name as complimentary
8 comments:
"One could very easily see use of the name (Redskins) as complimentary"
Pretzel Logic.
Simple logic but when you let your emotions drive your brain logic doesn't work.
There's nothing twisted about it because the name was picked to help define the team as strong, courageous and determined which would therefore make it a complimentary use.
Now if they had picked the name to define the team as whining pathetic alcoholics there would be no question that it was meant to be derogatory.
BTW, Mr. Pretzel Logic that's not what I think of them as so don't go imputing racism simply because I drew a strong contrast to help clarify a point.
In law, defamation–also called calumny, libel (for written words), slander (for spoken words), and vilification–is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always,[1] a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).-Wikipedia
Ok....I don't see how the word "Redskin" as used by the Washington Redskins Organization even comes close to "defamation."
A professional football team obviously is trying to present the image of a "winner." Of course, given the Bengal's performance over the last few seasons, maybe the city of Bengali, India should sue for defamation if these guys win....
"A professional football team obviously is trying to present the image of a "winner."
How did the American Indians win? Forced migration to reservations in the stinking desert?
Not mentioned in the article was that a survey of American Indians a few years ago, showed that 91% of them didn’t find the that the term “Redskins” was wrong.
Several years ago, The University of Northern Colorado, a school with a large Indian population, started to sell T-Shirts and other things with the term The Fighting Whites on them. They started this to show the White Man how they felt about having their name being used that way. Only trouble was that the Whites loved the idea!!! Orders started to fly in for T-Shirts, which they had only made one of. Now they sell lots of stuff and use the money for a scholarship program.
So will that University stop selling T-Shirts?
Here is the web site.
http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwhite
Mobius
1. I suspect that the plaintiffs mostly just want money and would happily "settle." Then, with their bona fides established, they could repeat the trick against other organizations.
2. But they target the number one sports team in the capital? Fools. Have they ever peered into the luxury boxes to see how many decision-makers are there on freebies? Do they not know why the Redskins are considered one of the most, er, influential franchises in sports?
Sounds like a tribal arguementto me,
So
I'd have some reservations about commenting on this subject!
A Google search of "Washington Redskins History" reveals that the name was first used in 1937. One could wonder why, if they really found the use of the name offensive, they only filed suit after 55 continuous years of use.
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