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Ottawa Citizen editorial board lobbies for Edmonton Eskimos to change their name

Edmonton Eskimos' quarterback Mike Reilly (R) and Andrew Jones celebrate a third quarter touchdown against the Calgary Stampeders during their CFL Western Final football game in Edmonton November 22, 2015. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber (REUTERS)

WINNIPEGWhile teams like the Washington Redskins have been under public siege for their nicknames, there have been relatively few protests about the Edmonton Eskimos, whose name is considered offensive by at least some Canadian Inuit. There was some discussion about the name in 2011 and 2012, and a few stories in 2014 following the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's ruling to cancel the Redskins' trademark, but there hasn't been much of a sustained push to change it. That discussion's been started again this week, though, by the editorial board of The Ottawa Citizen. Here's the key part of what they wrote:

It’s an honour for Ottawa to meet Edmonton’s team on the field, and may the best team win the Grey Cup on Sunday. And may they meet soon again, as the Ottawa Redblacks and the Edmonton … something else.

Leave aside the fact that many of the people to whom the word “Eskimo” has been applied, historically, do not identify that way. Whether the word is derogatory or not on its own, it is disrespectful as the name of a sports team. ...

The Edmonton team name, even if it’s not the worst example on the continent, is part of that bizarre context and tradition. The practice of naming teams after indigenous groups stems from a history of fetishizing indigenous people as noble savages, and of mocking the traditions and symbols of colonized peoples. The Edmonton Eskimos seem to have got their name based on the fact that Edmonton is farther north than Calgary; the idea behind the nickname is caricaturing, even if the logo is not.

Teams can change their names. The Nepean Redskins, here in Ottawa, have done it. Justice Murray Sinclair, who headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has suggested that dehumanizing names and logos have an effect on young indigenous people. How do we weigh that against mere nostalgia and continuity in merchandising?

There are some valid points in there, and a discussion about changing the Eskimos' name is probably worth having, especially if there are substantial impacted people who have a problem with it. However, the Citizen's timing here is unfortunate; as Daniel Kaszor noted on Twitter, a newspaper from the opposing city putting out this editorial during Grey Cup Week makes it seem more like trash talk of the team that's going up against the team from their city.

There are some reasons to talk about it now, especially with the recent Ottawa discussion of yoga as "cultural appropriation" (the Eskimos' discussion is obviously more significant than that, but the paper says the yoga controversy brought this to mind), and perhaps it's better to make the case now than never, but many may write this off just as criticism from a rival city. The Citizen has brought this conversation up again, and it's a conversation worth having, but changing the name will probably require a much larger public protest than just some criticisms from a newspaper in the opposing city.