Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290266
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STUART WASSERMAN LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: PORTLAND, ORE. LENGTH: Medium
A farm club for the Atlanta Braves baseball team is toning down its Indian-related advertising. St. John's University in New York city is considering dropping the nickname Redmen. The Washington, D.C., City Council has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the Washington Redskins to change their name.
However, at the Portland Oregonian, letters are piling up high on several editors' desks, and readers are leaning 6-4 against the action, according to Judson Randall, assistant to the editor.
William Hilliard, the Oregonian's editor, announced Feb. 16 that the paper would drop the names Redskins, Redmen, Indians and Braves from its reporting. "I have directed this action with the belief that these names tend to perpetuate stereotypes that damage the dignity and self-respect of many people in our society and that this harm far transcends any innocent entertainment or promotional value these names may have," Hilliard wrote to his newspaper's readers.
The Oregonian has listed 92 sports teams across the country, down to Class B high schools in Washington and Oregon, affected by the decision.
Some critics have asked: Aren't we all getting too sensitive?
Spoofing the move, one of the Oregonian's columnists pointed out that the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Ore., uses the nickname Braves.
Steve Capka, a talk-show host on KFXX all-sports radio, said calls are coming in 100-1 against the Oregonian decision. "I don't think they did their homework," said Capka whose grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee. "The Cleveland franchise changed their name to the Indians to honor the first Native American to play in the big leagues [Louis Sockalexis, the team's best hitter in 1896] and the Boston franchise changed their name to Braves to honor a Delaware Indian chief. These moves were not meant to demean."
One Beaverton reader wrote in to say: "The Oregonian is free to protest all injustices it perceives about the world - on its editorial page. The rest of the paper should be devoted to reporting and covering society as it is, not how the Oregonian's editors might wish it to be. Anything less than that is irresponsible journalism."
Inside the Oregonian there has been some resistance too.
Steve Duin, a political columnist, says the issue is one of censorship. "We can't be deciding every name. It's an issue between teams and different groups in our society. How can we decide every dispute?"
Duin said the move surprised him because "the Oregonian is not known as a paper on the cutting edge."
However, there has been change at the paper over the years. The newsroom has become more diverse, and a small percentage of staffers represent varied ethnic groups, including American Indians. Hilliard is black and, associates say, sensitive to ethnic issues.
The issue was first raised last fall by John Killen, an Oregonian assistant city editor, who grew up in Idaho and worked for 11 years in sports journalism in Lewiston, Idaho, a heavily Indian area.
"My best friend's wife was Indian," he said. "I was aware of the epithet `Redskin' a long time ago."
Johnny Jackson, a Cascade Klickitat chief says he is happy about the move, "It pleases my elders. The majority of our people felt hurt by it all," Jackson said, mentioning particularly images of ugly Indians used as emblems and mascots.
Some observers speculate that the Oregonian's decision may have been easier to make because the local college teams - the University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers - do not go by Indian names. One irate Oregonian reader now predicts: "When the animal rights people get done with team mascots, there will be no Ducks, Beavers, Bears, Cougars, Huskies or Banana Slugs either."
by CNB