Washington Sportswriter Commits Professional Suicide

I wonder how often sports writers write something that's almost sure to get them tarred, feathered, and run out of town. Well, Mike Wise (with an oxymoron for a surname), a columnist with the Washington Post, has decided to slap liberal Washington right in the kisser with a denouncement of the Redskins nickname:

As you're drinking out of your Redskins mug Monday night while wearing your Redskins T-shirt -- supporting your make-believe Indians against those reviled Cowboys -- think long and hard about what a sweet way to "honor" a people that is. And, please, enough with this, "We're paying homage to the bravery and warrior mentality of the Native American." That's the same tired excuse Florida State University uses to continue the tradition of a student on horseback in full Hollywood regalia, chucking a flaming spear into the ground at midfield before football games, while thousands of people participate in the Tomahawk chop and the accompanying war chant also popular at Atlanta Braves games. The truth: The indigenous people of this continent were almost all hunters, gatherers, craftsmen and craftswomen before some of our ancestors nearly exterminated them and turned them into B-western caricatures.

I have been wanting to write about this issue since I got this job 18 months ago. The boss told me to hold out before I alienated most of the city, their pigmented Indian-face flags flopping along the Beltway on the way to FedEx Field on a September morning. All those liberal crusaders in the District and suburban Washington, working and writing for their own passionate causes but pleading ignorance on this one.

So I waited a year and observed, trying not be too judgmental, figuring I was just some knee-jerk newcomer who didn't get it.

I still don't get it.

He doesn't get it all right. Liberals are only allowed to be the accusers of racial bias, not the accused. This will not sit well with the D.C. elite who don their Redskins gear every weekend and cheer for their "warriors".

Personally, I think all this concern about Indian nicknames is silly. If they want to change the name to the Washington Whities, I don't care. It doesn't matter one bit to me. My self-esteem is neither enhanced nor diminished by some team's nickname.