The Washington Redskins hold a special place in the long and glorious history of the National Football League.
Founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves, renamed the following year as the Redskins, then relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1937. The team is, without question, one of the most iconic franchises in NFL history. Winner of three Super Bowls, the team boasts thirty-two inductees into the NFL’s Hall of Fame.
Today, eighty-eight years after their founding, the team has been castigated as a symbol of systemic racism and social injustice, amid loud cries of indignation, cultural insensitivity, and white privilege.
Woe is me! My great, great grandfather was 1/40th Cherokee and I am devastated every time I hear the words “Washington Redskins.” My self-esteem has been utterly crushed and I should be compensated for my suffering. (See my Essay “Sticks & Stones.”)
And so, bowing to “Cancel Culture” pressure, the team’s management has taken action. They have reluctantly changed the team’s name to the “Washington Football Team.”
Problem solved? Maybe, but maybe a new problem will emerge to take its place. Maybe this forced Cultural Cancellation of one of the sport’s most iconic franchises will have an unintended consequence in November.
Huh? How could that happen?
There are millions, no make that tens of millions, of Americans who are fed up with being told what they can and cannot say. They are tired of having some pointy-headed social activist telling them that they are ignorant and culturally insensitive. That they are bad people.
They are, for the most part, not bad people. They will go to the polls in November and vote for the candidate that seems to best understand their frustration. The candidate that feels their anger. They will vote for Donald Trump.