Change the Mascot: Pressure Grows for NFL Team to Drop R*dsk*ns Name and Logo As Thousands Protest
November 8, 2013
15,005
151
126
1.85%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Amy Goodman Episodes Around November 8, 2013
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
16:02Now PlayingChange the Mascot: Pressure Grows for NFL Team to Drop R*dsk*ns Name and Logo As Thousands Protest
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelFor decades, members of many American Indian communities have called on the Washington R*dsk*ns football team to change its name, which is based on a racial slur. Now the pressure has reached a new heights. On Thursday night, nearly a thousand Native Americans and their allies protested outside the Metrodome Stadium in Minneapolis as the team played the Minnesota Vikings. Earlier in the day, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton suggested members of Congress put pressure on the team's owners by boycotting its games. On Tuesday, D.C. lawmakers voted to call on the team to change its name. Also this week, the Minnesota American Indian movement took legal action to call on the state to refuse funding for the new Vikings stadium if the slur will be used there. Despite the massive outcry, the team's owner, Daniel Snyder has refused to change its name. "The R word is not different than the N word. Little red Sambo has to go," says Clyde Bellecourt, co-founder and director of the American Indian Movement, and an organizer with the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media. We are also joined by Dave Zirin, political sports columnist for The Nation magazine and host of Edge of Sports Radio. The word "is a legacy of Jim Crow, it's a legacy of the team's original owner, George Preston Marshall, who was an arch segregationist," Zirin notes. "The team was the last team to integrate in the NFL. When George Preston Marshall passed away in 1969, he put in his will that no money from his foundation could go to any organization that promoted [racial] integration."
Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,200+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch it live 89am ET at
FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
Twitter: @democracynow
Subscribe on YouTube
Listen on SoundCloud
Daily Email News Digest
Watch Democracy Now! live 89am ET Monday through Friday via livestream at
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.