On Thursday September 10, 2015, House Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, non-voting representative from the District of Columbia, warned that she will be introducing new legislation with the goal of influencing a change of the Washington Redskins moniker. Anyone paying attention to the National Football League is aware that this new proposal will not be the first attack on the Redskins’ name. Over the last few years, the NFL and the Redskins have been under increasing pressure by certain Native American groups and sympathizers to change the moniker; these groups have argued that the name is racially offensive.
Moreover, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2014 revoked the Redskins’ trademark registration, thus removing the team’s trademark protection and permitting the unlicensed production and sale of Redskins merchandise. That revocation was upheld in federal court in July 2015 upon appeal; however, the Redskins have continued to use their nickname.
Rep. Norton’s bill is entitled the “Respect for Native Americans in Professional Sports Act of 2015,” and if enacted will prohibit the NFL, and any other pro sports league, from receiving exemption from federal antitrust laws while using the “Redskins” moniker. In her statement on September 10th, Norton said that the NFL and the Washington Redskins “should not be benefitting financially from federal antitrust exemptions while they continue to promote a disparaging moniker that has been found by legal authorities to be a racial slur.”
The Redskins organization has continued to stand behind its moniker despite Norton’s pending proposal. A Redskins spokesman reportedly stated that the organization “disagree[s] with Ms. Norton’s opposition to the Washington Redskins name.” He additionally noted that “[m]ore than 85 percent of Ms. Norton’s constituents disagree as well, as recent polls have shown.”