Sports Nicknames and Racism

There is a large debate going on about racist team nicknames in the two countries I'm most closely affiliated with: England and the USA.

In the US, the football team from Washington, DC has been getting some press for their nickname: The Redskins.  Supporters say it's a tribute to the bravery of the Native American people, and shouldn't be stigmatized.  Dan Snyder, the toad that owns the team, has said he'll never change it.  (I say toad not because of this, but because of everything else he's done in ruining a once proud football team.)  The supporters of the club say they don't want it changed.  Rick Reilly even wrote an incredibly condescending article on the uproar for ESPN saying that it was White people telling Native Americans that they should be offended, and if they aren't we'll be offended for you.  (No links, as he really doesn't deserve it.  The man is truly the Mitch Albom of Sports Writing.  Except that Mitch used to write sports too.)

What Mr. Reilly, who points out in his article that there are high schools with majority Native American populations that have Redskins as their nickname, doesn't seem to understand is that there are numerous Native Americans that objected to the name previously over the past 40 years.  Heck, the only reason they're playing in Maryland right now instead of Washington, DC proper is because Ben Nighthorse-Campbell supposedly put in a rider on a bill stating that no national government funds could be used for a stadium until they changed the nickname.  The main problem Reilly has is assuming that all Native Americans feel the same way.  Of course they don't.  They aren't a homogenous group, they are different tribes.  The Seminole tribe in Oklahoma expressed their anger towards Florida State for being the Seminoles, and asked the NCAA to make them change their name.  The Florida tribe said they had no problem with the name.  Who do you go to on this one?  The head of the Oneida nation wants it changed, and has a challenge for anyone who believes it isn't a slur: Come to his house, look at his grandchildren and say, "What a cute couple of Redskins they are!"  If you can't do that, then it is not honorific.

In England, there is a similar uproar over the unofficial nickname for the team I support in the Premiership.  Tottenham Hotspur, the only team named after a character in a Shakespeare play, is unofficially known as the Yids.  Their supporters also say that this is a tribute, as the area surrounding White Hart Lane, their stadium, is majority Jewish.  They say that they've taken on that nickname as a badge, after having it used against them for so long by other clubs.  And this is true.  Supporters from clubs like West Ham United and Chelsea have long made hissing sounds to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.  In fact, last year during the Europa League, nine Spurs fans were attacked in Rome by Lazio fans, and it has been strongly suggested that it was due to anti-semitism.  So the point the supporters are making is, "Ok we've decided to take on the identity proudly that you want to place on us."  When a player on the field does something great, he's greeted with the chant, "Yiddo, Yiddo."  When Jergen Klinsmann joined Tottenham, he was serenaded with this ditty: "Chim Chimmery, Chim Chimmery, Chim Chim Cherooo, Jergen was a German, but now he's a Jew."

Then in 2012, Comedian David Badiel, who is Jewish, brought out that he was offended by the chant, and asked for it to stop.  This brought out statements of support from the Society of Black Lawyers in the UK, and a threat that if it continued then they would file a police complaint.  I completely agree with David on this one, and I think it's time to stop the chants.  However, Mr. Badiel probably was the wrong person to do it.  Daniel Levy, the chairman of Tottenham, should have been the one to broach the subject.  There probably would have been less push back from Mr. Levy because he sits through all the games.  Mr. Badiel, you see, is a Chelsea supporter.  So his concerns were automatically dismissed since some of the biggest complaints in the past about anti-semitism towards Tottenham fans came from Chelsea games.  Mr. Levy has started a dialogue with the fans to turn away from the chants, but with threats coming against them, I don't see that happening in the short-term.  (By the way, Ajax Amsterdam also have the same issue as Tottenham, and many of the same questions are being asked in Amsterdam as in London.)

So where does it stand now?  Well, the Washington football team will still be the Redskins, and Tottenham fans will continue to call themselves Yids.  Both say they are honoring, rather than disrespecting, the people that the nicknames refer to.  However, take the challenge offered by the Oneida Nation: If you can go up to a Native American and call him and his family Redskins, or to a Jewish family and call them Yids, then you can use the phrase.  If you can't, then you shouldn't call your team that either.