So, looks like blogger Ben Tribbett, who proudly took on the job of (ahem) defending the Redskins name, has resigned after just two weeks, USA Today reports.
Imagine that. I guess the glory of defending a racist and unseemly team name that refers to Native American scalpings wasn’t the plum position the organization advertised on Craigslist. And of course, it didn’t help his cause that a Twitter CSI conducted by Indian Country Today revealed that he reportedly made some choice remarks about Native Americans while gambling. USA Today quotes the tweets as such:
“an older native american guy just accused me of cheating … Just took Chief for his last 300. I’d call it a scalping, but that seems uncalled for.”
Welp. That definitely ain’t what’s hot in the streets. Chief? Really, son? But even beyond that boorish behavior: We cannot think of an amount of money that would get us to take that gig. Though some insist it is just a sporting organization’s name, we would certainly hope that those who have, and do struggle, with systemic racism and beyond know a lot better than that.
Out of all the names in the vast world, even if you got saddled with this one based on history alone, common sense should surely dictate that you would hold a brainstorming meeting to come up with other options. I’m quite certain we could get a kickstarter campaign going to fund enough Starbucks for a marathon session.
But I ask the organization to rethink this hire. You might not want to do is subject some other employee to the thankless and controversial role of sitting watch over this despicable brand. It’s a dirty job, but guess what? Nobody’s got to do it. Not if they have sense anyway.
