Formal athletic competitions have been going on since the development of the Olympics in Greece 2,500 years ago. Since the early twentieth century, sports have taken America by storm. Well into this century, however, there is still debate over some mascot names.

From the (Confederate) Rebels of the University of Mississippi — with that flag — to  the Coachella Valley High School Arabs, around since 1931, whose mascot is, of course, an Arab. They were asked by the Arab Discrimination Committee to change the name because it reinforces prejudice against Arabs and is not fit for the 21st century. If you were wondering what type of stereotypes were used by the team, they had a halftime gig where they did a genie dance.

These are only some examples of racism in American sports, but the most popular of these controversies concerns the Washington Redskins. Yes, the oldest conflict since slavery was established in America. The eradication of more than two million people in the last 300 years. Impressive, right? After almost three centuries, the topic is easily glossed over by the average American.  

The Washington Redskins have been around since 1933, but people debated whether or not the use of “Redskins” was a slur. Fast forward to the ’70s when people finally realized that it was in fact a slur and demanded change. This is where the protests to change the team’s name began, but it hasn’t been until the last few years that more and more people have urged owner Daniel Snyder to change the name.  He refuses.

It’s time to change the name. I’m not alone in this opinion.  A much better journalist than I made a hilarious video showing exactly how ignorant some Washington fans are of the slur in their team name. The video belongs to Jon Stuart’s Daily Show, which almost had me in tears.

In the video, the reporter questions fans on whether or not they would call a Native American their “honorable” name, which isn’t so honorable, as the term “Redskin” was used to describe a Native American bounty kill.

To make the case for using the name, some have used the illegitimate Annenberg Report poll, in which 90 percent of the “self-proclaimed indigenous” people said they didn’t find the name offensive. This seems a little off, right?

How offensive it is to have this debate. We cannot stop using offensive names, and we can’t even say we are sorry.  I was having a conversation about this topic with my dad, just asking for advice on how to frame this piece, and I told him how I felt. To be honest, I’m ashamed to live in a country where we have had such a long time to apologize for terrible offenses, and we never actually have.

Sure, President Obama passed a bill for a defense act acknowledging that we committed genocide against a race of people, but he never wrote a speech directly for them.

Section 8113 of the ‘Apology’ explains: “The United States, acting through Congress, recognizes that there have been years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of covenants by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes; apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by the citizens of the United States; and urges the President to acknowledge the wrongs of the United States against Indian tribes in the history of the United States in order to bring healing to this land….”

That sounds pretty good, right? Well, that’s section 8113 of X amount of sections. In my opinion, it should be more sincere than just squeezing it into a defense bill. I’d say we owe Native Americans more, but then I’d be interfering with the bureaucracy of it. To be honest, I don’t know too much about bureaucracy.