Earlier this week, the Washington football team bragged that the sports programs 75 high schools around the United States “proudly” share its name. In the face of growing criticism that the NFL team’s real name is a racial slur against Native Americans, it responded Monday with a post on its official website arguing that, well, if a bunch of high-school kids are doing it, it must be OK.
Well, the flacks down at Washington football team Park might want to revise their count downward. Students and administrators at Cooperstown (N.Y.) High School are considering swapping their use of the name of the Washington NFL franchise to something a bit less outdated. The Utica Observer-Dispatch reports:
“When the nickname of Redskins was ascribed to Cooperstown years ago, that was not meant to be derogatory, but times have changed and certainly we’re at a juncture where we need to review this and its appropriateness,” district Superintendent C.J. Hebert said.
At a school board meeting last week, students, parents, and administrators discussed swapping the high school teams’ name for something derived from the works of James Fenimore Cooper, the pastoral and Romantic author whose father founded the idyllic town. Students also voted on potential new team nicknames, with Coyotes, Deerslayers, Hawkeyes, Pathfinders, and Wolves among the most favored.
Some who attended the board meeting spoke in favor of keeping the current name as a matter of tradition. But one person also read from a letter penned by Douglas M. George-Kanentiio, a Mohawk author, who wrote about the impact the Cooperstown teams’ current name takes on his community.
“As much as it may be of concern to the people, it is equally of importance to those native people who once called the region their home,” the letter read.
No decision was made at last week’s board meeting, and there is no timeline for a decision, but Cooperstown Superintendent C.J. Herbert told the Observer-Dispatch that if a name change is authorized, the new name is “embodies the values and aspirations of the student body and the community.”
