Two offensive names that need to be changed - The Washington Post: Washington Redskins, meet Negro Mountain.
One is the name of our hometown football team; the other a mountain ridge that stretches from Western Maryland into Pennsylvania. One name is patently offensive to a large majority of Native Americans; the other name overwhelmingly rejected by African Americans.
After decades of fighting separately to change each name, perhaps the time has come for African American and Native American leaders to take a unified stand against this common problem. No name rooted in systemic efforts to dehumanize can be accepted as a so-called honorific by any of us.
When lobbying to change the name of the mountain begins in the Maryland General Assembly and debate over a resolution to change the name starts in the Pennsylvania legislature, Native Americans should lend their support. And when the National Museum of the American Indian holds a conference Feb. 7 on the name “Redskins,” enlightened African Americans should show up in solidarity.
