My colleague, George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf, has entered the fray over the Redskins name with the filing of a complaint to oppose the renewal of a radio station’s license due to its use of the team name. The filing comes at a time when recent polls show that almost three out of four people polled still believe that the Redskins should keep its name and do not view the name as racist. Another poll shows that almost 60 percent of NFL players believe that the team should keep its name. The radio station, WWXX-FM, is an ESPN affiliate owned by team owner Dan Snyder.
Banzhaf is actually teaching my torts class his term while I am on sabbatical. We disagree on this issue. I recently wrote a Washington Post column on the controversy over the Redskins name. I do not believe that government agencies or boards should make this decision and view it as a further expansion of the administrative state into social or political controversies. This effort would bring a second agency into the mix after the recent trademark controversy at the Patent Office.
Banzhaf is quoted in our GW Hatchet as drawing a comparison to the use of the n-word: “Most people I think would agree that a station that repeatedly used the n-word on the air would have their license taken away. American Indians call it the r-word. Therefore broadcasters shouldn’t be using the term ‘Redskins.’ ”
The FCC Petition states that “it is long since time for the FCC to determine whether the continued and unnecessary use of the most racially derogatory word which can be used in connection with America’s first citizens can possibly be consistent with a broadcaster’s mandatory legal obligations.”
The question however remains the role of agencies as arbiter of such disputes as opposed to leaving the question for the fans and society (and the market) to decide. While the support for the name has fallen, it is still remarkably high with both the public and fans and even many Native Americans. The question is who should decide such questions and whether an insulated government board or office should effectively determine the issue. I certainly understand and respect the arguments of those challenging the name and my primary interest is not the merits of the dispute but the means by which it is decided.
Banzhaf often includes students in his litigation, which has included groundbreaking reforms in combating tobacco use. His class on litigation is called “Sue the Bastards.” He is the founder of a smoking pressure group, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Even as a law student, Banzhaf was a fierce advocate. While still a student at Columbia Law School, Banzhaf wrote a note on copyrighting computer and software programs. It had never been done despite requests. While still a student, Banzhaf sought to register copyrights on two programs he had written. He became in 1964 the first person to register such copyrights. He later testified in Congress on the issue. Not a bad start for a law student. Notably, one of my colleagues,
Robert Brauneis, attended an event at the Library of Congress celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Copyright Society and the Library was featuring exhibits in the Main Reading Room that constituted the most important developments in copyright law. It featured Banzhaf groundbreaking application (which Brauneis captured in this picture from the celebration).
Source: GW Hatchet
This is difficult. I, too, would prefer that the market (aka, the fans and sponsors) decide this. However, if Dan Snyder chose to rename his team to the Washington Niggers, who among us would support that?!? I would certainly expect my government to intervene. Why is the team name Redskins any less derogatory or any more defensible?
Given the above context, should my use there of the N-word be stricken or banned while use of the R-word is allowed?
I’m not suggesting that Dan Snyder is a racist. I assume he’s just a smart business owner trying to protect his intellectual property. But his defense is most certainly offensive.
Go Washington Warriors!
Alex Haley plagarized Roots
Dredd, did you know that Roots was written by a white man?
Get rid of the Progs – Alex Haley is black but he did plagiarize a large section of Roots.and had to pay damages.
Prey for Amurka.
There is a reason the U.S. is one of the most racist nations.
What could it be (A Tale of Coup Cities – 13)?
Surely racism has nothing to do with racism!
Only 27% of our presidents owned slaves!
Who gonna beat dat?
Bailers, And that Act was pushed w/ Big Insurance $’s!
We gave up the ability to be outraged when the government used coercion to achieve their goals when there was no legal basis for doing so.
Remember the National Drinking Age Act?
Some folks are zealous anti PCers. Almost cultish in their fervor.
I am so heartened to see how many people understand the destructiveness of PC. It’s a battle good people. The purveyors of these Constitution haters have a missionary zeal.
While I don’t agree with the government being brought into this issue, I’d question whether we should come to decisions on issues because of polling results. In addition, this poll of 1,019 Americans–done by phone last month–was conducted for ESPN. One has to wonder how many people in that small polling sample were Native Americans…and how scientifically the poll was conducted.
Elaine – I question all polls. However, Indians should not have been a larger group than is represented in the population as a whole.
Nonsense! I suggest they adopt the rebel don’t tread on me flag and combine it with the rebel native flag. That will give negociating room. By the way, who do I sue for calling me ‘white’? Only the black and white minstrels were actually white! Frivelous law suits like this should carry a penalty. Maybe its a ‘hate crime’ against the Redskins….
TL – even black minstrels wore ‘black face’ it was part of the costume.
HIs Majesty and Excellency, King Obama, the irrepressible Indonesian*, better roll this witch hunt out to Iowa.
“Hawkeye” How insolent and demeaning.
“Edwards proposed the nickname “Hawk-eyes” in 1838 to “…rescue from oblivion a memento, at least of the name of the old chief” Black Hawk.”
(Wiki)
“The state of Iowa acquired the nickname chiefly through the efforts of newspaper editor James G. Edwards of Fort Madison and Judge David Rorer of Burlington. The city of Burlington had been established in 1833 after the Black Hawk War of 1832. Edwards proposed the nickname “Hawk-eyes” in 1838 to “…rescue from oblivion a memento, at least of the name of the old chief” Black Hawk. In 1843 Edwards moved his newspaper, the Fort Madison Patriot, to Burlington and renamed it the Burlington Hawkeye in tribute to his friend Chief Black Hawk.
The name “Hawkeye” was already in the public conscious through James Fenimore Cooper’s bestselling The Last of the Mohicans of the 1820s and 1830s where Hawkeye was the Indian name of the series’ protagonist, Natty Bumppo. It is thought by some that this popularity helped Rorer and Edwards’ campaign to make Hawkeyes a nickname for Iowans. The University borrowed its athletic nickname from the state of Iowa, also known as the Hawkeye State many years ago[quantify].”
* Is that why Indonesia tore the Obama statue down, because it defamed and insulted Americans…Indonesians? Why, exactly, did Indonesia tear the Obama statue down…odd, in deed?
Professor Turley has this one right. The question is not whether the name is appropriate or not. It is whether using government coercion to force a private business to change a name that it has had for nearly a century is appropriate.
Nobody’s liberty is infringed by a name. A government remedy here is vile and a threat to free speech/thought. Banzhaf exemplifies the mindset of the modern intolerant progressive totalitarian who wants to use government coercion to punish people who don’t think the way they do to impose their own values/beliefs on everyone else. Unquestionably, it is modern day McCarthyism: Think like us or we bring the force of government down on you.
Banzhaf is no friend of liberty or freedom. I find his illiberal ideas about free speech and the inappropriate use of government coercion far more vile, disgusting, and repugnant than a mere name.
More BS from someone who doesn’t have enough to do with his time.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I have no doubt that a study would find that people are finding the Redskin name offensive. The numbers will grow to the majority the more the minority “teaches” the lemmings to have a false outrage towards something they never cared about. The whole thing is stupid and we all knew it at one time.
http://www.tpnn.com/2014/06/19/will-harry-reid-tell-this-100-navajo-indian-high-school-their-redskins-mascot-is-racist/
Red Mesa High School, located on the Navajo Reservation in Red Mesa, Arizona, is a public school in which nearly 100% of it’s students are Navajo Indian.
Their mascot and logo?
The “Redskins.”
Progs – I think I read some where that some 2000 teams are named ‘Redskins.’
Well, this is just silly, but the Prof. can do what he wants. I don’t follow professional football anyway.
“What makes America Great?”:
It’s candied apples and ponies with dapples
you can ride all day!
It’s girls with pimples and cripples with dimples
that just won’t go away!
It’s spics and wops and niggers and kikes
with noses as long as your arm!
It’s micks and chinks and gooks and geeks
and honkies (Honk! Honk!) who never left the farm!
FT
Political correctness has never been as rampant as it currently is over a multitude of issues.
The threshold issue that comes immediately to mind? Standing? How does this guy have standing in the matter of the application here?