Raven Ziegler from Minneapolis protests the name nickname of the Washington team. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

The Washington Post’s editorial board will no longer use the local football team’s name.

“While we wait for the NFL to catch up with public opinion and common decency we have decided not to use the slur ourselves except when it is essential for clarity or effect,” the board said in a statement to the Washington Post.

The Post’s news-gathering side will continue to use the name, executive editor Marty Baron told the newspaper he runs: “Standard operating policy in the newsroom has been to use the names that established institutions choose for themselves. That remains our policy, as we continue to vigorously cover controversy over the team’s name and avoid any advocacy role on this subject.”

Several news outlets, including this one, and politicians have taken what Baron sees as an “advocacy role” by refusing to publish the racial slur.

“The Washington Post Editorial Page has made the appropriate and honorable decision to no longer use the name,” the Change the Name organization said in a statement. “When news organizations use this word in any context, they are endorsing it and legitimizing it by inherently promoting it as an acceptable term. It is not acceptable — it is a dictionary-defined racial slur that countless Native Americans, civil rights groups, religious groups and elected officials from across the country have said should be changed. For news organizations, there is no ‘objective’ way for a media outlet to regularly promote this term without simultaneously endorsing it. Media outlets must decide which side they are on. Are they going to continue promoting a racial slur or are they going to stand on the right side of history? We hope they choose the latter by following the lead of The Washington Post and other publications that are no longer willing to tolerate this term.”