White skin privileged liberals don't speak for proud redskins

The perpetually outraged, virtue-preening, white skin-privileged liberals don't have to ask the beneficiaries of their condescending concern their opinion – they'll give it to them!  Don't bother the know-it-alls with inconvenient facts that disturb their lofty attitude.  

For instance,a recent Washington Post poll suggests that Native Americans (or Indians, as they are erroneously and interchangeably called in the article) are not offended by the word "redskins."  However, many liberals in Washington, D.C. still will not attend a football game involving the Washington Redskins or cheer them, but instead are continuing their pressure on the team's owner to change the name.

Nine in 10 Native Americans say they are not offended by the Washington Redskins name, according to a new Washington Post poll that shows how few ordinary Indians have been persuaded by a national movement to change the football team's moniker.  (snip)

Responses to The Post's questions about the issue were broadly consistent regardless of age, income, education, political party or proximity to reservations.

Among the Native Americans reached over a five-month period ending in April, more than 7 in 10 said they did not feel the word "Redskin" was disrespectful to Indians. An even higher number - 8 in 10 - said they would not be offended if a non-native called them that name.

The results -- immediately celebrated by team owner Daniel Snyder and denounced by one prominent Native American leader -- could make it that much harder for anti-name activists' to pressure team officials, who have already used the poll as further justification to retain the moniker. Beyond that, the findings might impact the ongoing legal battle over the team's federal trademark registrations and the eventual destination of the Redskins' next stadium. The name controversy has clouded talks between the team and the District, widely considered Snyder's desired destination. (snip)

Still, Snyder has vowed never to change the moniker and has used the 12-year-old Annenberg poll to defend his position. Activists, however, dismiss the billionaire's insistence that the name is intended to honor Native Americans. They argue that he must act if even a small minority of Indians are insulted by the term - a dictionary-defined slur. They have also maintained that opinions have evolved as his unyielding stance has been subjected to a barrage of condemnation by critics ranging from "South Park" to the United Church of Christ.

But for more than a decade, no one has measured what the country's 5.4 million Native Americans think about the controversy. Their responses to The Post poll were unambiguous: Few objected to the name, and some voiced admiration.

"I'm proud of being Native American and of the Redskins," said Barbara Bruce, a Chippewa teacher who has lived on a North Dakota reservation most of her life. "I'm not ashamed of that at all. I like that name."(snip)

Even as the name-change movement gained momentum among influential people, The Post's survey and more than two dozen subsequent interviews make clear that the effort failed to have anywhere near the same impact on Indians.

Across every demographic group, the vast majority of Native Americans say the team's name does not offend them, including 80 percent who identify as politically liberal, 85 percent of college graduates, 90 percent of those enrolled in a tribe, 90 percent of non-football fans and 91 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 39.

High-cheekboned Democratic Massachusetts senator Fauxcahontas Elizabeth Warren, who overcame her mediocre academic and professional record by playing the Native American minority woman card to become a Harvard University Law professor, could not be reached for comment.

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