Comedian seeks to change Washington Redskins’ logo to ‘severely sunburned white person’
As if the Washington Redskins weren’t having enough problems fielding a halfway competitive team, the debate on whether the team’s name is racist or not simply will not go away. The Redskins-as-racially-offensive theme has hit the American mainstream, and unsurprisingly, people who aren’t hardcore NFL fans or longtime “Hail to the Redskins” fanatics aren’t quite as enamored with the name.
Here’s the thing, though: surveys have consistently shown that a majority — a declining majority, yes, but still a majority — of Americans support the continued use of the “Redskins” name. Team owner Daniel Snyder himself has said he will NEVER (he insists on using all-caps) change the name.
Fair enough, says comedian Hari Kondabolu. Keep the name, just change the context a wee bit. His suggestion? Change the logo from a stylized Native American to an extremely sunburned white dude. (It’s like that hack joke about changing the mascot to a redskin potato, except funnier.) Then, you’re not offending anybody, you’re keeping the “Redskin” name intact, and hey, there are plenty of tough, noble, proud white guys who get sunburns. Here’s his full explanation:
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Kondabolu has set up a Tumblr page for logo submissions, and he’s already got a few gems.
Yep, that’s exactly what the NFL needs right now. You know, this might just work out OK after all.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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