What's in a Name? To Washington Post, Niggerhead is Offensive, Redskins Isn't

Indian Country Today has a story up on the polical flap involved in an old family hunting area of Presidential Candidate Rick Perry in the Washington Post. They rightfully slap the Post for it's use of the offensive to Native Americans word: Redskins

Anyone who read the story The Washington Post published over the weekend, lamenting Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry’s alleged inaction on changing the name of the “Niggerhead” hunting camp his family has frequented for decades, knew that this was not good news for Perry. But few in the mainstream media have pointed out The Post’s own abuse of language in continuing to refer to the D.C. football team by the name “Redskins”— a word that many Indians find just as offensive as many African Americans find the N-word.



On its website, in fact, The Washington Post juxtaposed its stories about Perry next to a story, titled “Redskins on Hold, Escape Win Over Rams.” The newspaper’s editors apparently did not recognize the irony.

Many newspapers recognize the offensive word and refuse to use it in their articles, instead using the Washington football team.  Redskins, a term going back to colonial times when bounties were offered on Indians, $50 pounds for a healthy Penobscot male.

Bob Gough, a leader with the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, breaks it down:
“Sir, which is worse: That a potential presidential candidate from Texas has a family hunting camp that was once named ‘Niggerhead’ or the Nation’s Capital, where he is hoping to move, still proudly supporting a sports team named ‘Redskins’?


“Your paper’s contra-positioning of ‘Niggerhead’ v. ‘Redskins,’ with expressed concern over only one of these terms, seems sadly, but blatantly racist and hypocritical.”

The New York Times uses the offensive term five times in an article about John McCains chances to win the presidency. So the liberal papers, are very selective in their outrage.

Never mind that the story is untrue, as our friend Jazz Shaw points out here .   The hypocrisy of our news media stands out like a drunkards nose.

Our friend Sherri Mitchell says:  Its astounding that this type of terminology, used to memorialize the slaughter of a people, is still being used casually and recreationally by American society. Its Shameful