The end of the Redskins tradmark case? Not yet
The morning of the Redskins’ Super Bowl in Minneapolis, I covered a Native American demonstration prompted by a lawsuit challenging the team’s name as racist.
That was almost 18 years ago. The case finally ended today when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear it.
So much for that. Actually, the Native Americans have a second case filed by another group that could follow. They’re trying to work around part of the reason the case was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals. We’ve probably not heard the end of this issue.
Had the court stripped the team of the trademark for using a racist term, the Redskins would have lost millions of dollars in royalties for merchandise sold with the team name. The challengers figured that would have been enough for owner Dan Snyder to change the name. We’ll never know, but it might have done it.
It’s a long debate I’ve had with many people over many years. I’ll stay with the court’s decision. It didn’t bother me, but I didn’t grow up an American Indian. If we’ve removed other symbols that offend a group, the Redskins term seemed to be the next. Ironically, the courts never ruled on the case over its racism, but other technicalities.
Ironically, I learned this year that my great great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. Personally, I think that’s pretty cool. I’m one-sixteenth American Indian and proud of it. But like I said, I didn’t grow up with that identity so it’s hard for me to have a real opinion.
