“What’s In A Name?”

One of William Shakespeare’s famous lines, though it would be naïve to think it was the first time anyone considered the attributes of a moniker.  It is a timeless question that only adds confusion today.  Though the problems of the question today could not have been foreseen in William’s time.

On May 18, the Oregon Board of Education passed a new rule that names referring to Native Americans are banned from being used as nicknames.  The names include “Redskins”, “Braves”, “Savages”, “Indians”, and “Indianettes”.  “Warriors” will continue to be allowed, but only if anything referring to Native Americans is removed.

“The concept of Native American mascots being hurtful and racist was not new to me,” said state board member Serilda Summers-McGee. “However, the testimony we received from students, members of the Native American community, and researchers regarding the impact of Native American mascots on student learning and self-esteem was extremely illuminating.”

Some of these ideas seem like a no-brainer.  Redskins is a name based off physical appearance, and would be no less offensive if a team was called the Whiteskins or Blackskins.  Savages is a negative connotation, held by the ignorant for years portraying Native Americans as mindless savage people, simply because they lived in a society different from ours, and had somewhat less modest ideas of clothing.  Removing those is an appeal to common sense.

However, with names like “Braves” and “Warriors” the lines blur.  The problem that can be found is that there is nothing inherently wrong about the names.  They refer to the battle-ready class of a type of people, no different than “Spartans” or “Trojans”.  Those names have never been referred to as racist or hateful.  Why the difference?

It is guilt?  Years after American settlers tried their best to wipe out Native American culture, and effectively stole the land from under those living there, are we apologizing?  Is this our way of saying, “Sorry we took your stuff, we will try to be nicer to you from now on”?

There should not be anything wrong with some of the names.  Some of the acts associated can be disputed, such as having a clearly white person dress in a headdress and dance with a tomahawk.  Removing those helps destroy stereotypes.  But in the end, is there anything inherently wrong with the name “Braves” or “Warriors”?

After all, what is in a name?