Native American Team Names and The Witch-Hunt Mentality

  The "witch hunt mentality" has been an ever- present element of human interaction throughout history. For innumerable sociological and psychological reasons (which shall not be stated here in the interests of brevity and coherence), we are compelled to weed- out, to report, to be the one out of many who successfully finds and makes public the hidden evil. Take the persecution of Jesus Christ, by which the law- abiding and God- fearing Jews, so readily and happily handed over one of their own because he was a heretic. Take the Salem witch hunts themselves. Take 1940's Germany, in which Nazi publicists intentionally nurtured this mentality in their subjects. It is a "collective neurosis" of sorts, to quote Frankl. It is an unfortunate, vestigial psychological hang- nail from our evolutionary days.

          For this mentality to flourish, the perceived evil (i.e. witches, heretics, Communists, etc.)  must be publicly condemned either by the majority of those perceived to society's "good" people, the highest authority in society (i.e. the king, government, etc.) or both. On its most basic and primal level, the mentality manifests itself through "tattling" in young children. We never truly grow out of it (though we think we do), and we never truly realize it until it has been explicitly pointed out to us. Every era and every society has its own perceived evil, and in this generation, it is those who are not politically correct, those who are seen to be "offensive" in even the slightest capacity, and those make any distinction, good, bad or neither, between different groups of people.

          It is painfully easy to pinpoint where this modern neurosis got its start. In the midst great social upheaval of the last century, especially in America during the struggle for civil rights, those who were previously indifferent or at the minimum largely unaware of the unjust ills suffered by certain groups, all suddenly became activists. They joined the protests. They confronted discrimination where they previously allowed it to pass noticed. They took a stand where it was convenient for them, which, in truth, is courageous, and all many civil rights activists said they needed to do. In short, the common man became a warrior for justice in his own right and become hypersensitive to the types of discrimination which had long plagued the nation.

          This heightened level of scrutiny and sensitivity to these issues was indeed necessary to rid them at the time, as they had become so deeply ingrained in the American way of life. And while our vigilance is still a necessity to keep them from returning, somewhere along the way, the heightened awareness became corrupted, either from its gradual escalation to a vice of excess or overstaying its welcome. In any case, it has evolved into, as you likely guessed, the witch- hunt mentality.

          Think about it: how many times have you heard someone or something accused of being "racist", and thought to yourself how utterly ridiculous it was. Surely even the people most sensitive to these issues will admit to one such occurrence. It seems today that in any dispute involving people from two different social demographics can hardly proceed without one party (or both) being accused of being either "prejudice", "racist" or "a bigot." Do none of these claims ever have any merit? They absolutely do at times, but our witch hunt mentality has become so pervasive, we decide so quickly by it and it makes our opinions so final, that we are rendered incapable of fair judgement and assessment of our society's conflicts. As soon as we hear one of the magic words, "racist", "prejudice", etc. we immediately shut down, for the party accused of such evils cannot possibly be correct, and if we concur with them, then surely we are those things too.

          So, putting these pseudo- instincts aside they best we can (it will take some work, but you can do it), and trying our best to recognize the total ambiguity that the magic words have assumed, tackle a contemporary issue: professional sports team names that some claim are insensitive. I will start with a question: When you hear the word 'offensive', what do you think? Is there any urge to examine it's meaning, beyond 'bad'? We have been so trained to immediately shun "offensive" things, that we can scarcely remember that it is an entirely subjective term. When someone labels something as such, we must not immediately begin thinking of absolutes.

          Admittedly, a white man may not be able to  to fully see why the term "Redskin" may offend a Native American, as he is incapable of doing so. However, we must look at this subjective term objectively in order to produce a right judgement. First and foremost, we must realize that looking to Native Americans as the final authority on whether or not these team names are good or bad is logical fallacy. Simply because some Native Americans are offended by the term, is not indicative of badness, just as a Native American, or Redskins fan finding it unoffensive is not indicative of its goodness. As Justice John Marshall Harlan II wrote, "One man's vulgarity is another man's lyric."

          So, what then might make a team's name "bad?" I should hope that one might respond by saying that any team name that defames or otherwise makes a derogatory statement about what it represents. No teams with Native American teams do indeed do this. "Redskin" is no more "offensive" than referring to Caucasians as white or Africans as black. When one begins to take the time to see things in a more logical light, rather then submit to the gag reflex that is quasi- prejudice, then he/she can come to more sane and logical conclusions about these issues. It should not, in any other deduction, cause one to strain so much as they do to reach such rudimentary revelations such as the fact that no person in their right mind would name their sports franchise, which they can be assumed hold in high esteem, after something they did not admire.

          In addition, let me be clear that this is not the only issue whose practical resolution is vitally crippled by our tattle-tale mentality.One might think that having seen what tremendous damage this mentality has posed to human society in the past, we would be more apt to vigilance. Yet this is not the case, and in a great deal of circumstances, individuals have been aware that their accusations of racism and prejudice are totally unfounded, but they know that these can be exploited to tremendous advantage, both in terms of the argument, and of being the "heroic" who weeded out the perceived evil. Those of us who are aware of what is becoming of our common conscious can do great lengths to diminish its effectiveness, simply by recognizing, and taking a stand on issues such as "offensive" team names.