The Redskins originated in Boston in 1932 as the Braves, the same name of their city’s baseball team at the time, since they played on the same field. A year later, the team moved to Fenway Park, where the team owners changed the name to the Redskins. In 1937, they moved to the nation’s capital and have played there ever since.

The Redskins franchise is shrouded in history. In the 1940 NFL Championship Game against the Chicago Bears, they lost 73-0, the most lopsided NFL football score ever. They were the first team to have a full season of televised games, in 1950.

In 1962, they became the last NFL team to racially integrate, and drafted Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win a Heisman Trophy, college football’s MVP award. On October 1, 1983, they lost to the Green Bay Packers 48-47, the highest combined scoring game in Monday Night Football history.

In 1988, they became the first team to win a Super Bowl led by an African-American quarterback. Joe Gibbs, a successful NASCAR team owner, coached the Redskins for fifteen years. In 1999, the team ownership was bought by Danny Snyder, one of the least popular NFL team owners today, for $800 million, the most expensive purchase of a sporting team of all time.

In 2003, defensive end Bruce Smith set the record for most career sacks by recording his 200^th. In the 2006 NFC Wild Card match against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they won while gaining only 120 offensive yards, the least in a playoff win.

The team is almost halfway through its 83^rd season. It is considered one of the league’s most historic teams. However, a 21-year-old debate was recently reignited: whether their team name is offensive to Native Americans.

In 1992, Suzan Harjo, a member of the Cheyenne tribe, attended a Redskins game with her family and was cruelly taunted by fans around her. After this incident, Harjo sued the Supreme Court in order to get the Redskins to change their trademark, but, based on a statute of limitations, the suit was rejected.

Today, many important sports and political figures have weighed in on the controversy. President Obama admitted concerns about the team’s name in an interview, and said that if he owned the team, he would think about changing the name.

Sunday October 13th, in a cruel twist of fate, or an ironic sense of humor by the NFL schedule maker, the Dallas Cowboys played the Redskins in a “Cowboys and Indians” match the day before Columbus Day. During the halftime show of the game, in which the Cowboys won 31-16, revered NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas called the team name a slur and an insult.

Meanwhile, Snyder has vowed never to change the name, explaining in a letter to all season ticketholders that the name, fight song, and traditions have too much history to be let go. An hour before kickoff Sunday night, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stated that Snyder was not insensitive to Native-Americans because he is Jewish.

Well, I am Jewish, but that does not exactly make me above all racist feelings (not to say I am a racist). Just because one is in a group that has been subject to racism does not mean that they do not have the capabilities to be racist. Snyder is definitely being racist by disrespecting Native Americans. Danny Snyder is a disgrace to Jews everywhere, and he makes me a little less proud to identify myself as one.

Let us analyze the term “redskin.” Red. Skin. This is a term for Native Americans based on the color of their skin. You know what, this is not racist, but I guess we should change the name. How about something equally tolerant, such as the Washington Negroes? Wait, no. DC Negroes. Has a nice ring to it, does it not? How is a name based on a skin color, especially insinuating a specific ethnicity, not considered racist? Well, I guess since there are so few Native Americans in the country anymore, since we all killed and enslaved them, that it does not really matter.

How is this okay? Are we really this racist? Even after hundreds of years of racism in our country? America is still looked on as racist, after cases like the Rodney King beating, the Troy Davis execution, and the Trayvon Martin murder with subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman. This disgustingly offensive team name further perpetrates our racist stereotype.

America cannot tolerate this. We need to progress into the 21^st century, especially in the nation’s most popular sport, and especially in the country’s capital. America needs to stop being racist, and it will help if they change the Redskin’s name. Plus, they are currently 1-4. It cannot exactly hurt the team to change the name.