Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that will allow the Washington Redskins to keep their trademark name even though many consider the term “redskins” offensive to Native Americans.
The June 19 ruling overturned a 2014 decision by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office that canceled the registration of the National Football League team’s right to exclusively market the Redskins name on grounds that it is considered a racial slur.
The case under review concerned an Asian American dance band called the Slants that had been prevented from trademarking this name. “It offends a bedrock First Amendment principle: Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito for a unanimous court. The ruling means the use of the name Redskins is also constitutionally protected free speech.
Many Native Americans, myself included, have long urged the Washington team to stop using this derogatory term as its name. For years, Washington owner, Daniel Snyder has brazenly proclaimed that he would “never” get rid of this name, no matter how racist some people consider it.
Believing that there was no use in appealing to the better part of Snyder’s conscience, a core group of Native Americans sought to legally end his team’s sole right to market Redskins’ merchandise. Such economic leverage, had it been successful, would have cut deeply into the millions of dollars the Washington team makes from Redskins clothing and other products. As a businessman, Snyder might have had to find a new name for his team because merchandise is a major source of revenue in corporate American sports.
But Snyder aggressively fought the Trademark Office’s ruling, which never took effect and now has been undone.
Despite the setback, the fight to stop this marketing of hate is not over. Like Little Black Sambo, Frito the Bandito and other racial stereotypes, the days of the Redskins name and image are numbered.
It won’t take an act of government for this to happen. All it requires is the exercise of conscience by ordinary people, who refuse to go along with something they consider wrong. Despite the nation’s improbable election of a man known for bigoted expression, I believe the American people have become increasingly fed up with depictions of hate in our culture.
Everywhere there are signs of a renewed sensitivity, based on the sentiments of ordinary people. From the lowering of the Confederate flag in Southern state houses, to the toppling of statues of revered Southern Civil War hero in cities like New Orleans, Americans are done with keeping alive hateful symbols that needlessly exacerbate racial tensions.
Daniel Snyder can boast about his free speech victory all he wants. But one day soon, his business empire built on degrading and dehumanizing my people will end.
And there’s this: His Redskins’ name and image will be gone for sure, but not forgotten. Both will be forever enshrined in the museum of unfortunate chapters in American history.
Mark Anthony Rolo is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the author of the memoir, "My Mother Is Now Earth.”