The Washington Football Team Name Change Is a Win
The announcement by the Washington Football Team that it will change its name is not a concession. I was born in DC. I went to the football games of the Washington Football Team. Members of my family would name the Washington Football Team as their favorite team.
When I was a kid, Doug Williams was the quarterback of the Washington Football Team. And given the lack of Black quarterbacks, Williams was important to my Black family. His presence and his representation mattered to us.
Like the United States, the Washington Football Team managed to give hope to oppressed people and oppress people at the same time.
I grew up not understanding the racist name or the racist history of the team. I went to a high school that had a racist mascot. White racism made me complicit in racism against Indigenous people. That's what white racism does. White ignorance, as Charles Mills calls it, and racial stupidity, as Crystal Fleming calls it, are not limited to whites.
Indigenous people have demanded for years that the Washington Football Team change its name. As Frantz Fanon would say, the colonist didn't make this change because of any goodness in their heart. The change has come because corporate sponsors pressed the team. However, this name change isn't a concession; it's a win.