The Washington Redskins’ name is now officially too offensive for the New York tabloid that called the mayor an “ass” on its cover earlier this summer. The New York Daily News declared in an editorial published Wednesday night that from now on it will refer to the team as just “Washington,” and will use an image featuring the team’s colors in place of the feathered Native American logo (the name may still be used when discussing the controversy). The paper explained that while many believe the name “has been cleansed of derogatory meaning by association with celebrated athletics … the inescapable truth is that the term Redskin derives solely from the racial characteristic of skin tone in a society that is struggling mightily to be color-blind.”
The Daily News continued:
Here’s a simple test of whether Redskin passes muster: Would you use the term in referring to Native Americans in anything other than a derogatory way?
The answer, of course, is no. So it will pass from stories and columns chronicling Washington’s ups and downs. An inextricable extension of the brand, the logo will go as well.
The paper joins media outlets across the country — including the Washington Post, the Detroit News, the Kansas City Star, the San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, The New Republic, and Slate — as well as many individual sports journalists who have decided to drop the derogatory name, even if the team won’t.
