Change Your World Week Fall 2022 (Archived)

      Cultural appropriation is not a term that has just been discovered, it has been around since the 1980s. But what exactly is cultural appropriation, it is "the taking- from a culture that is not one's own-of intellectual property, cultural expressions or artifacts, history and ways of knowledge" (Ziff & Pratima 1997). What this means is that one culture is deprived of the true meaning of another culture because of negative aspect such as racism or inequality about what their culture is about. Cultural appropriation is seen through many different ideas and topics but the most common topic that it is seen through is in sports.

       One of the major areas where cultural appropriation has been seen is in sports. These issues have not been a new issue it has actually been around for quite a bit of time. There have been many controversies with team names and mascots because they have been offensive to other cultures. With these controversies, it gives people who are not a part of the culture a wrong perspective and stereotypes of what they are about. Native American cultural appropriation has been seen in various sports teams. Once specific team in which this has been impacted on is the Washington Commanders which used to be called the Washington Redskins. The team had encountered a ton of complaints as well as some legal encounters to try and get them to change their name. Their team's name has been accused of being dehumanizing which is " the failure to recognize an individual or group's humanness" (Phillips 2017). What people were saying is that the name that they go by is a misappropriation of the identity, cultural rights, and personhood of those that are Native American. Meaning that the name they are representing is not giving people the correct perspective of who Native Americans are and how their culture is perceived.

         In relation to the term 'redskins', when most individuals hear the word they refer to it as meaning harsh or barbaric. This is when the public began to wonder where the word originated, and why are the Native American people upset that a football team is using it as their team name. The beginning of the "name" redskins comes from the early nineteenth century, from a disturbing activity called Native American Scalping. It is as gruesome as it sounds, white settlers would curate listings stating something along the lines of "Every killed Native American, with proof (the scalp being the proof), can be exchanged for a large sum of money.". These homicides were considered a protective measure to preserve and defend white settlements from harm. When in all actuality, white settlers were harming what had seemed to be innocent Native Americans. 

                                                                        Photo of Broken Concrete Barrier

   Photo of Dan Snyder

Dan Snyder is the Washington Commanders owner and have shown that his actions and behavior are repulsive. Snyder tends to use his money and power to get away with things that are viewed negatively by other cultures. Snyder has a long history of being controversial, to say the least. His misbehavior has been well documented. Snyder have been well documented and there have even been multiple petitions that have been formed as well.

       Snyder bought the NFL franchise for $800 million in 1999 and now the franchise is now worth over $5.6 billion. Snyder never planned on changing the team’s nickname (Redskins) which he mentioned hundreds of times. It was not until the backlash became overwhelming that he started to lose money and realized that something needed to change. Several big-name sponsors started to cut ties with Snyder and soon after that in July 2020, they retired the nickname due to the misappropriation towards the Native American culture. For two seasons they played under the name of the Washington Football Team and in 2022 they changed their name to the Washington Commanders. 

       Snyder's past allegations toward those that are around him prove that he does not pay attention to the minority that are around him. This also shows why he thinks that changing the teams name is not big to him even though it offends those of Native American decent. One example of this would be back in July 2020 when The Washington Post published a series of articles alleging that over 40 women who were former employees of the organization, including officer workers and cheerleaders, has been sexually harassed and discriminated against by Snyder since at least 2006. Also, in that December it was also reported that Snyder has settled a sexual harassment claim with a former female employee for a sum of $1.6 million. With these two private investigations at the time, the team and an outside law firm failed to substantiate the woman's claim and it was reported that Snyder paid the sum to avoid any negative publicity. What this outcome shows is that he chooses to avoid any confrontation that is presented to him by paying them off rather than trying to understand how he is being offensive towards others. After a year-long investigation, completed by Beth Wilkinson, which was the Commanders lawyer, concluded in July 2021 that all the incidents of sexual harassment, bullying, and intimidation were commonplace throughout the organization under his ownership. Later discoveries showed that the NFL team was fined $10 million in response to the allegation of harassment and in result Snyder voluntarily stepped down from running the team's day-to-day operations. 

       In the past few months, news has come up regarding Snyder and how he has made threats to the other NFL owners, stating he has dirt on all of them. He has also made threats to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. November 2, 2022, Dan and Tanya Snyder and the Washington Commanders announced that they have hired Bank of America Securities to consider potential transactions. The Washington Commanders team spokesperson told ESPNs Adam Schefter, “we are exploring all options.” 

      Congress continues to investigate Snyder for the workplace culture created during his ownership. The NFL, led by attorney Mary Jo White, is investigating Snyder for a second time, stemming from an allegation of sexual misconduct. The first investigation resulted in a $10 million fine for the organization and there are also investigations by the attorney generals in Washington, D.C., and Virginia regarding financial improprieties by the organization, which the team has denied. 

      In 2020, the Washington Commanders changed their name which was formerly known as the Washington Redskins. The reason for this change of name is because there were multiple lawsuits and petitions that were implemented due to the term redskins being an offensive term towards the Native American culture. There have been many petitions that point out that the past name of the Commanders was offensive because the name gave little to no regard to those in the Native American culture and gave the non-Native population a false representation of who they are because of the term. One petition that was filed was in 1992 by Native American plaintiffs, they ended up not getting passed because it was seen that there was not issue with the term being seen as a slur. After the team finally changed their name, the big discussion is if it was the right decision.

                                                           Photo of citizens protesting against Slur team name

Bruce Ziff & Pratima V. Rao, Introduction to BORROWED POWER: ESSAYS ON CULTURAL APPROPRIATION 1 (Bruce Ziff & Pratima V. Rao eds.,1997).

Cali, J. (2020, July 16). Taking a closer look at the word “Redskin.” Ada Evening News (OK).

Kaufman, Ellie (July 16, 2020). "At least 15 women are accusing Washington Redskins staffers of sexual harassment, report says". CNN.

Keim, John (December 22, 2020). "Washington Football Team reportedly settled sexual misconduct allegation against owner Dan Snyder for $1.6  million". ESPN. Retrieved December 23, 2020.

Phillips, V. F. (2017). Beyond Trademark: The Washington Redskins Case and the Search for Dignity. Chicago-Kent Law Review, 92(3), 1061–1086.

(2021, September 22). What is Cultural Appropriation? Center for Prevention MN. What is cultural appropriation? - YouTube