Redskins Name Racist? Harry Reid Says The NFL Should Ban It Like Donald Sterling

Is the Washington Redskins name racist? Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid seems to think so and has called upon the NFL to bane the Redskins name similar to how the NBA banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, last year it was rumored that the Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was considering changing the name to the Washington Bravehearts, but he also sent a letter saying the Redskins name was staying. Even though the Oneida Indian nation petitioned the NFL to force the Redskins name change nothing came out of it, and Snyder claimed only 10 percent of Native Americans support changing the Redskins name.

But the debate refuses to die. For example, the Redskins name change came up in relation to the NFL banning the N-word among players. When the Colbert Report made an accidental controversy with a joke about the Redskins name some people even started a social media to have the Colbert Report cancelled.

While politicians have long urged the Washington Redskins to create a more politically correct name for themselves, the recent incident with the Clippers owner has created the impetus to urge the NFL to copy the example set by the NBA. For example, Harry Reid claimed NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should “remove this hateful term from your league’s vocabulary and rid the league of racism and bigotry. Your fans will support it.” But he also claims the NFL is “sitting on its hands doing nothing while an entire population of Americans has been denigrated.”

Snyder also came under attack for resisting the Redskins name change based upon tradition:

“What tradition? A tradition of racism is all that name leaves in its wake. I urge Daniel Snyder to do what is morally right.”

Oneida representative Ray Halbritter agrees with the statements made by Harry Reid and couched their own press release in moral outrage:

“The NBA has shown leagues like the NFL that they have a moral responsibility to take disciplinary action against people like Dan Snyder, who also continues to proudly promote bigotry with the use of a dictionary-defined racial slur as his team’s name.”

Do you think the Washington Redskins name change can be compared to the situation with the Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling?