How the new Redskins nickname poll focuses on the wrong numbers

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder and political conservatives are together celebrating the results of a Washington Post poll published on Thursday, which champions that 9 out of 10 Native Americans do NOT find the term “Redskins” to be offensive.

This, of course, is significant because there has been a pressing debate about the appropriateness of the team’s nickname over the past few years, as the matter began being pushed on certain political agendas.

The findings are noteworthy and match a frequently cited previous poll from 2004 that also found 90 percent of Native Americans did not have a problem with the term “Redskin.”

Despite what the poll says, I still do not think the name should be celebrated, nor will I suddenly accept it. Rather than the 9 out of 10 number to focus on, I think more critical numbers to look at is that 21 percent of those polled — just over 1 in 5 people — found the term disrespectful, while 17 percent said they would be offended if called it by a non-Native American.

We read through all the polling methodology, from the questions asked to who was surveyed, to how it was conducted. The protocol followed seems to be pretty fair. The poll was conducted by phone of 504 Native Americans. Of the Native Americans polled, only 44 percent were enrolled as members of a tribe. Still, even among this group, 90 percent of respondents said they were not offended by the name.

Here are key findings of the poll:

– 21 percent find the term “Redskin” disrespectful, while 73 percent do not
– 17 percent would be offended if called “Redskin” by a non-Native American, while 80 would not
– 78 percent said the issue was not important to them, while 20 did

51 percent of those polled said they were football fans.

Does anyone else not find it significant that while only 9 percent say they are offended by the team’s nickname, 21 percent find the term disrespectful?

How can these findings be justified?

I think one key difference between the numbers is some respondents may view it as a sign of weakness if they personally admit they are offended by the name. Think about it: There is so much pressure to conform, with those in minorities often beaten down over their views, it’s just easier to say you’re not offended. But when asked a more impersonal question of whether they found it disrespectful, the number more than doubles. That is telling.

Now here’s where championing the results of the poll continue to make this issue problematic.

If a good amount of people view it as a sign of weakness or conformity to say they are personally offended, then when you proudly wave around poll results like this saying that the opinion of the 10 percent do not matter, you’re making it even harder for those who view the name as disrespectful to speak up.

And how is the 90 percent figure explained? For one, there is social pressure to conform. For another, maybe Native Americans feel powerless to stand up to a group that ran them out of their land, mocked them with a team nickname from an owner who was last to racially integrate his team, and has shown a refusal to budge about the nickname. Maybe they feel that they have so many other issues that are more important, they do not want the nickname issue at the forefront, so a vote of not offended is a way of deprioritizing the matter. Or maybe they just feel happy to be represented at all in American culture, even if it’s not in the most flattering way. Maybe the name is so closely tied to the football team now that that is most peoples’ strongest association to the word. After all, the term “gypped” is commonly used in society, but how many people realize that is a slight against gypsies?

Bottom line: A team’s nickname should not produce results where the percentage of people offended is greater than a percent or two — if that. If you’re disrespecting 1 in 5 Native Americans by using the word, that is still very much a problem, regardless of what Dan Snyder or others say.

Or looking at it a better way — how many people are offended by the nickname of Tigers, Wildcats, or Lions?

I imagine if some professional sports team from the South nicknamed itself the “Rednecks,” there would be some who liked the name. Some would take pride in it, some would view it as a badge of honor, and they would hold a sense of camaraderie about it. Heck, maybe even a majority of people would like it. But there are still people who would view it as offensive and oppose it.

Regardless of what the numbers say about what percent of people are not offended by it, we’re talking about sports teams nicknames, and those should not be inappropriate or as disrespectful to a group of people as the Redskins are to a significant number of Native Americans.