Renaming The Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians Won't Help Native Americans

After years of resistance it looks like Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder is amenable to changing the team's name due to pressure to bear from FedEx (who owns the naming rights for their stadium) and Nike and is forming a committee to review the matter.

Hours later the Cleveland Indians announced they are considering doing the same in seeking to "advance social justice and equality."

I'm sure that by this time a year from now Washington's NFL club and Cleveland's MLB club will have different names. Activists, the media, politicians and corporations will pat themselves on the back in the name of progress.

But how is changing the name of a football team in Washington, D.C. is going to address poverty of Native Americans living on reservations? And how does changing the name of the baseball team in Cleveland alleviate violence against Native American women?

I can answer both these questions. It won't.

Then there is the fact that Native Americans are actually killed by police at a higher than African Americans. Changing the names of professional sports teams won't change this fact nor will it draw further attention to this injustice.

The issues facing Native Americans are also facing Aboriginal and First Peoples in Canada. I grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario which has the largest Aboriginal population in all of Canada. I can tell you that renaming sport teams with Aboriginal names wasn't on the to do list.

Like any other group of demagogues, social justice warriors seek easy answers. In the grand scheme of things changing the name of a baseball team or a football team is an easy thing. Ending poverty, domestic violence and police brutality have no easy answers and SJWs aren't really interested in doing the work to find those answers because it is work that requires a lifetime commitment instead of short term satiation. They are content to attain power through intimidation and with every inch of power comes a mile of intimidation instead of helping others gain the courage to take the steps to a better life.

As long as SJWs have this mentality then poverty, domestic violence and police brutality against Native Americans will continue no matter what name we give to the Washington football club or the Cleveland baseball team.