SocraticGadfly: Today the #ConfederateFlag, tomorrow the #Redskins

June 23, 2015

Today the #ConfederateFlag, tomorrow the #Redskins

I still disagree, just as I did a week ago, with the Supreme Court's ruling that the state of Texas could stop making Sons of Confederate Veterans vanity plates. It's not "government speech," it is free speech and the government picking "winners and losers.

And, I also don't believe that two wrongs make a right.

That said, I do believe in silver linings. (And, I do believe in getting rid of the Confederate flag from most government spaces, and for real reasons, not Republicans trying to massage the worse out of symbolism.)

And, here's one.

A federal district court looks like it could cite that case as part of its hearing on the latest attempt to strip the Washington Hymies* of its "redskin" trademarks.

* Note — I do not normally use racial language. But, precisely because Redskins owner Dan Snyder is Jewish, I deliberately use it in referring to the team under his ownership until he accepts modern non-racist reality.

1 comment:

PDiddie said...

The Atlanta Braves' tomahawk chop and their "indian" war moan (also used by the Florida State Seminoles) were parodied many years ago in a column whose source and author is lost to my memory. It contrasted their actions with the supposition that there might be another Southern team called the Memphis Coons, whose fans, adorned in blackface, would hold legs of fried chicken up in the air while singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".

Just as offensive as you are capable of imagining, and indicative of the callousness with which professional and collegiate sports franchises have long disgraced indigenous Americans.

Chief Wahoo, indeed.