Most
grabs are ridiculous and contemptible, but not the latest effort by
, the owner of the Washington-area NFL franchise, to restrict the use of
. Barring people from using the name [RACIAL SLUR] is a piece of public service. The Washington Post should never have used the team’s name as part of the title of its local pro-football blog to begin with. The team’s name is a
.
It really isn’t hard to stop calling the team that name. The Post now calls the blog ”
” (or “The Insider”) which is a little lazy and vague, since it implies the blog might also provide inside reporting on high school and college football. So: “Pro Football Insider,” or “Washington NFL Insider.” Done.
But don’t stop with the titles of things. Write around the name throughout the paper. Fine, you can’t refer to Donovan McNabb in shorthand, as a [RACIAL SLUR]. Now imagine that the team’s name was a slur against a racial or ethnic group of which McNabb actually was a member. Would you call him that other racial slur? Or would that seem awkward?
If the Post gets tired of typing “Washington NFL team,” it can go ahead and give the team a different name. Newspapers used to do that all the time; it’s why there’s a baseball team called the
.
The reason the Washington NFL team keeps playing under the racist name given to it by its original,
is that people are accustomed to using it. Nobody really thinks much about it.
Well, Daniel Snyder, bless his
, is working to change that. He wants the racist name to be used intentionally and deliberately, so that he can make money off it. Let him.
