House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has added her voice to the chorus of lawmakers calling for the Washington Redskins to change their team name.
During an interview with The Hill, Pelosi said it, “probably would be a good idea if they change the name” adding herself to the growing list of Congressional members, political figures, and sports columnists who have spoken out against the name this year.
Earlier this month President Obama weighed in on the controversy during an interview with the AP. “If I were the owner of the team and I knew that there was a name of my team–even if it had a storied history–that was offending a sizable group of people, I’d think about changing it,” President Obama said in the interview.
As public support for changing the Washington Redskins name grows, team owner Daniel Snyder vows to never change the name. According to a poll commissioned by the Oneida Indian Nation, 59% say Native Americans have a right to feel offended by the term redskins. The poll also reveals 44% are more likely to stand behind a name change after they learned the term is defined as “offensive” in the dictionary. “As the numbers show, when people learn the actual definition of this offensive term, many say it is time for a change,” Ray Halbritter, a Oneida Indian Nation representative said in the poll data. “We hope Mr. Snyder will heed the call to meet with Native peoples so that he can personally hear why we believe it is time for him to change his team’s name and be on the right side of history.”
On Wednesday the NFL is planning on meeting with representatives of the Oneida Indian Nation to talk about the team name. Snyder has not confirmed if he will attend.
Abby Borovitz