I'm shutting down Google+ for the night and quite possibly for the weekend. Why? This stupid #gifwars thing people are so proud of. This Adam Black guy said he doesn't like gifs and now everyone is mass trolling him. Having been mass trolled like this I can relate to him easily enough. Have an opinion and the collective might of Google+'s lower class denizens jump on a bandwagon. I just saw a post where someone wanted to jump on board and had to get clarification she was tagging the proper Adam Black. She wasn't even connected to him ! Nor was she a part of the original discussion. She just wanted to follow the herd. When I called her out of it she claimed, "one gif doesn't make a troll." Perhaps not, but she's contributing to a larger troll effort. One straw doesn't break the camel's back, but thousands will. So, tonight, Google+ disgusts me. It probably will tomorrow as well. And possibly Sunday. I gave up Google+ for two months this spring
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Why? I was a census worker in New Mexico and an RN in Arizona. I am by no means an expert, but there are few things you notice. Many of the tribes in the Southwest take serious pride in their warrior heritage and entirely support anything that supports that perception. Others honor the differences (namely the Navajo) and embrace them. I have found that the northern and northeastern tribes are far more sensitive to such issues.
With respect to the article, I had a hard time following his logic with how his experience meant that the NFL should change the team name. If anything, what I got out of it was "people should want to be Indians" which an NFL team is more likely to provoke than being called "The Calvary".
Would you want that? Change the name of the "Redskins" to the "The Cavalry"? Seems a bit odd to suggest such a thing.
At the same time, the NFL is entirely a white man trying to make money and I see the relative evil that is.
I think ultimately I think I fall into the "we have bigger problems than worrying about NFL team mascots" since I have been up close and witnessed how bad it is to live on a reservation for most tribes. If you ever wanted to see what life was like in a 3rd world country, go no further than the vast majority of reservations in the southwest.
It's one of those strange "it's a privilege to be able to care" privileges that so many do not have.
But, look at it from a different angle. Would a team name called "Blackskins" be considered racist?
Probably. I consider both of them to adjectives, myself, but most people will call it racist. If it's racist to have a "Blackskins" then why is it not racist to have a "redskins?"