US Patent Office Cancels Trademark for Washington

[RobToxin]

And another victory for the Thought Police.

 

[Caliskinsfan]

And another victory for the Thought Police.

[MEDIA=twitter]482226292285140992[/MEDIA]

I saw that.

 

[ram29jackson]

the Washington High school district voted for that particular high school near Seattle to keep the Redskins name

 

[ram29jackson]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/n...ttes-to-avoid-ny-tax.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[Caliskinsfan]

Excerpt:

Is ‘Redskin’ a racial slur? That is a topic of debate that even highly accomplished scholars can’t even answer. J. Gordon Hylton, a Professor of Law at Marquette University, says that

“If you were to look up the word ‘Redskin’ in “widely used English language dictionaries” prior to 1983 you would find that ‘redskin’ was simply a noun for an American or North American Indian. The 1983 edition of “Webster’s Third International Dictionary and Collegiate Dictionary, 9th Edition” were the first dictionaries to add the phrase “usually taken to be offensive” in addition to the definition of ‘Redskin’. So ‘Redskin’ was not defined in our dictionaries as a racial slur prior to 1983.”

‘Redskin’ as a racial slur gained a lot of momentum in 1992. The “bloody scalp” theory gained national recognition thanks to Indian activist Susan Shown Harjo. Adrian Jawort, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and a writer for Indian Country Today, said this in an article:

I can’t help but notice one glaring statement that’s always inserted into the debates: “redskins” equals “scalp.” This conclusion originates from American Indian activist Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Muscogee) and a National Congress of American Indians’ brief. In the Pro Football vs. Harjo trademark case in a bid to force the Washington Redskins to change their name, Harjo and six others made it to the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. before the Supreme Court eventually rejected their longstanding case in the 2009. And while that fight still goes on via Blackhorse v. Pro-Football Inc., Harjo’s team had previously claimed “redskin” derived from referring to bloody Indian scalps during the onset of the French and Indian War.

Particularly cited is England’s 1755 Phips Proclamation, a declaration of war against the non-British allied Penobscot Nation stating: “…For every Scalp of such Female Indian or Male Indian under the Age of twelve years that Shall be killed and brought in as Evidence of their being killed as aforesaid, Twenty pounds.”

As appalling and emotionally appealing as it is, the Phips Proclamation doesn’t include the words “red skins” in it. Claiming “scalps” automatically means “red skins” is revisionist history, to be blunt.

It was the Native Americans who first used the term “red” in order to differentiate between indigenous, white, and black people. When not referring to their individual and other tribes collectively, why would they use Indian, Native, or other adjectives to describe their obvious skin differences back then?

Ives Goddard is a senior linguist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of History. Goddard wrote the book, I am a Redskin: The Adoption of a Native American Expression (1769-1826) and notes the earliest uses of “red skin” were in recorded statements from Natives by the French who generally traded amicably with them. The French were careful to denote the “red” distinction was made by Natives themselves. By the time of the Phips Proclamation, according to Goddard, “red” to describe Natives was used “by both French and English…. Although Europeans sometimes used such expressions among themselves, however, they remained aware of the fact that this was originally and particularly a Native American usage.”

Also citing Goddard in the recent article, “Before The Redskins Were The Redskins: The Use Of Native American Team Names In The Formative Era of American Sports, 1857-1944,” Professor of Law and historian J. Gordon Hylton writes about the term, “…throughout the nineteenth century, the term was essentially neutral when used by whites, reflecting neither a particularly positive or particularly negative connotation.”

Even Sitting Bull once remarked, “I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.”

 

[Wazmankg]

Yeah , good luck with all of that. ^^^. Prior to roughly the mid-60s, depicting NAs as "bloody savages" in movies and on TV was commonplace as well. This really isn't something for "scholars to answer". If NAs consider it a slur it's a slur, period.... and I'm not talking about those whose only connection is that their great-grandma was a NA.

 

[night]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/n...ttes-to-avoid-ny-tax.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

A few businesses in Wisconsin tried the roll your own cigarettes thing but the feds quickly shut them down. Too bad for them, those big rolling machines must cost quite a bit.

 

[Caliskinsfan]

Yeah , good luck with all of that. ^^^. Prior to roughly the mid-60s, depicting NAs as "bloody savages" in movies and on TV was commonplace as well. This really isn't something for "scholars to answer". If NAs consider it a slur it's a slur, period.... and I'm not talking about those whose only connection is that their great-grandma was a NA.

Agreed. And that's where this discussion goes off the track. Until I see valid proof of this from a majority of NAs, I will continue to believe this is a manufactured 'issue du jour' by the vocal minority thought police.