Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images.
The Arlington County Board is joining the D.C. Council, and tons of others who think the Washington football team should probably change their name.
In a resolution passed yesterday, the Board says that the team’s name is “…objectionable to many Americans, Virginians, and Arlingtonians who consider it to be a racist slur and derogatory, as demonstrated by the 1983 edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language Second Edition Unabridged.”
The resolution, which was proposed by the Board’s vice chairman, J. Walter Tejada (D), passed by a 3-0-2, the Post reports.
“[The] Arlington County Board commends the Washington NFL football team for their outstanding contribution to the Greater Washington metropolitan region and requests the team’s owners to change the name and be welcomed into our Commonwealth with a fresh start and a brand new name,” the resolution declares, while pointing out that the “rebranding” of a D.C.-area professional sports team has not proved to be an economic loss, as evidence by the Wizards’ name change from the Bullets.
In 2013, the D.C. Council passed a similar resolution asking the team to change its name. Team owner Dan Snyder, of course, has not budged, and recent media reports claim that Mayor Muriel Bowser may be courting the team to build their new stadium in D.C., partly by using the name publicly again.