Q: Is it OK for a team to be called ‘The Redskins’?
A: Yes, but the reasons are subtle, and a bit complex. Bear with me. What indeed is being asked is whether or not naming a team after a generic racial term is irreducibly racist and thus immoral. The answer is that it is not. While the connotation is certainly there, the act of naming a team, or having a mascot is to imbue a symbol with the spirit that you expect the team to embody. This is very common. This is almost always a positive spirit.
Secondly, it is possible for someone to be a supporter of that team without any expectations that they will behave in any racist behavior. If the denotation of the mascot was of racist intent, then you would expect that the team and the fans of the team would support them for that specific intent.
But it is always reasonable to consider the context of such moral evaluations. Of course times change and meaning and sensitivities change. Before we look at the implications of a proper re-evaluation consider the following:
The Good Wolf
There is an ancient parable about two wolves. I told it to my children because I find it to be wise and true. The parable says that every human being has a soul and that two wolves fight for control of it. There is a good wolf and a bad wolf. It is up to the individual to determine who wins. Which wolf do you feed? You should feed the good wolf.
I strongly suspect that this is an Amerindian legend. So it is naturally expected that we Americans would know and pay attention to this ancient wisdom. But we also know that wolves are hunted. Imagine a moment somewhere in the distant future where wolves in America have been hunted to extinction. It might very well presumed offensive and immoral to tell stories about the spirits of animals who no longer exist. Perhaps if humans lived at the time of dinosaurs we wouldn’t love them as we do. Even as we speak, many find nothing redeeming in those hunters who wiped out the mammoths, giant sloths and sabertooth tigers.
It is clear in my telling of the story here and as I related the import to my children of its wisdom of self-knowledge and self-control that I am in no way using the symbol of the wolf as representing an actual wild animal that should be hunted to extinction. Nor is it done in any way relating to biological wolves. The wolves symbolize powerful conflicting forces within the human soul.
No matter what the sentiment of the hypothetical future where wolves are extinct, the original value of the story remains. But one could easily imagine a world without wolves where they only exist as totems and symbols of a negative sentiment. Perhaps in that future, no one could imagine anything like a ‘bad wolf’. One could easily see an interpretation of history in which the very idea of a bad wolf would seem regressive, simple-minded and primitive.
In such a future, my great grandchild might be asked to respond to the question:
Is it OK for a team to be called ‘The Wolves’? Once we have destroyed the statues of all the wolves and reinterpreted the history of their myths, we will be the poorer for it.