NFL's Damage Control Team Adds Women, But No Indians

WASHINGTON - Sept. 16, 2014 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 16, 2014):  In an effort to control the very serious damage already done by what the Washington Post and other have called its "willful blindness" to issues of domestic violence and sexual assault, and possibly even to help Commissioner Roger Goodell retain his current position, the NFL is hiring four women to serve as advisers on these controversial issues, including three nationally known leaders in these fields with no ties to the league.

        Unfortunately, the NFL’s damage control efforts apparently will not include hiring any American Indians, or even experts on American Indian matters, to help advise them about their willful blindness regarding the league's toleration of a team name repeatedly found to be a "racial slur" which insults and denigrates Indians on the basis of their race and ethnicity, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who is helping to lead the fight to stop broadcasters from using the word on the air.

        "There are many American Indian leaders, including those who head major Indian organizations, who are as prominent and well respected as the women chosen to advise the league about domestic violence and sexual assault.  As advisers, they could help the NFL and DC's team understand just how strongly many American Indians and their organizations feel about the use of this R-word - which to them is as insulting and inflammatory as the N-word is to African Americans - and why it should be changed," argues Banzhaf, who has challenged the broadcast license of one station for using the word.

        With few truly independent women initially on their staffs to provide guidance, it is easy to understand how the league could fail to appreciate just how strongly many (but certainly not all) women feel when players beat women and receive little or no punishment.

        Similarly, by largely consulting only with hand-picked Indians - including many beholden to the team for grants, or hoping to obtain them - and not those who are recognized leaders and spokespersons, DC's team, Dan Snyder, and the league likewise underestimate these very strong feeling.

        More importantly, suggests Banzhaf, they still fail to appreciate how widespread the anger has become, now forcing major newspapers and broadcasters - not to mention the President, half the Senators and many Representatives, virtually every American Indian organization and many civil rights organizations - to stop using the word and/or calling for it to finally be changed.

        There are many respected and independent Indians who have not yet spoken out on this issue who can advise Snyder, the NFL, and other team owners about this issue if given a chance, said Banzhaf.

        Clearly, the NFL should not continue to rely upon outdated and indeed discredited reasons for continuing to use this racist name.  As the New York Daily News recently put it in announcing that it would no longer use the word, “the Redskins name is a throwback to a vanished era of perniciously casual racial attitudes. . . . The time has come to leave the word behind," and American Indian advisers can help the team to see that, and provide a more-than-valid justification for finally ridding itself of racism, says Banzhaf.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/ @profbanzhaf