Related: A Nickname Is Getting Under People's 'Skins
The New York Daily News editorial board has said the newspaper will no longer use the name "Redskins" to refer to the Washington NFL team.
Under the headline "Sack the Name," the paper reported on its website that the paper wil publish its annual best NFL preview Thursday morning, NFL's opening day, but with the name "Redskins" omitted.
The preview also won't use the Redskins logo with its feathered Indian, instead using maroon, gold and white colors to suggest the team's helmet.
"Enormously popular and deeply ingrained in sporting culture, the Redskins name is a throwback to a vanished era of perniciously casual racial attitudes. No new franchise would consider adopting a name based on pigmentation — Whiteskins, Blackskins, Yellowskins or Redskins — today. The time has come to leave the word behind," the paper said.
The Washington Post editorial page last week said it would not use the name on its opinion page, but the Daily News went further.
"[I]t will pass from stories and columns chronicling Washington’s ups and downs," the paper said, adding "An inextricable extension of the brand, the logo will go as well."
The news came as more than 100 groups including the NAACP and Common Cause called on broadcasters not to use the name, and only days after George Washington University professor and legal acitivist John Banzhaf challenged a radio station license held by Redskins owner Dan Snyder, arguing its use of the name was borderline obscenity, possibly hate speech, and had no place on the airwaves of those charged with serving the public interest.
