Red Skin Is A Bad Name Essay

In “Red Skin is a Bad Name” by Baxter Holmes, and “Redskin is Not a Bad Name” by Daniel Snyder, the two discuss their two different views about the NFL’s “Washington Redskins”. Many, including Baxter Holmes, believe the name “Redskins” represents a derogatory word for the Native American indians. Holmes clearly states how the name represents the Phips Proclamation in 1755 where many people were paid to kill Native Americans. Meanwhile on the other hand, many biased supporters such as Daniel Snyder and many of the Redskins fans believe the team’s name symbolizes Native Americans in a positive way, describing the name as a “pride” to Native Americans despite the fact about what the name symbolized in the past. Although Snyder claims that there …show more content…
Holmes, however, disagrees with Snyder’s claim. Living as a “proud Native American of the Cherokee and Choctaw lineage”, Holmes first-handedly represents the Native American culture, and understands how a majority of Native Americans argue with Snyder’s meaning of “redskins”, including his family,” Non-Natives may never quite understand how deep the term “redskins” cuts into action wounds that have never quite healed, and maybe it’s not reasonable to expect the mto. But every time Dan Snyder refuses to changed his NFL team’s name, (...) Snyder plunges a long, twisted blade into our hearts. ‘He’s going to change the name,’ my mother says. “He has to’,” (pg. 3) Many people in his culture feel offended and degraded. Unlike Snyder who has only visited a few reservations, Holmes lives with the culture of being a Native American and fully understand the negativity the term redskins gives him as well as his fellow Native Americans. Therefore, although Snyder states that there are many Native American supporters of his team’s name, Holmes provides the evidence that various Native Americans also oppose of using this term to represent an NFL