>> hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you're in the stream. the fight over washington's football team heats up. our digital producer wajahat ali is bringing in the online opinions. >> do not mess with them when it comes to this topic, check out my facebook page. we have the record number of

comments, 230. robin says i'm a descendant of the chippewa tribe. we don't care what they call their american football team. we as people are raising children and grandchildren who will not let this type of racism go on. name change may not happen this season or the next but it will happen. finally melissa says, people are so sensitive these days. it's just football. find out a way to help the native american people. >> turning on a football team carries on weight. picking up the fight with their change the mascot campaign. everyone from nbc sports analysts bob costas to president barack obama have weighed in. how do native americans feel?

>> i'm not a caricature or a mascot. >> i am not a caricature or a mascot. >> i'm not a caricature or a dead relic of the american past. i'm a human being. >> we are human beings. change the name. >> change the name. change the name. >> change did name. >> change the name. >> that is a video made by one native american. who rallied others to speak out. not all native americans dislike the name or even care. who should decide if the washington redskins should change the name? a sportswriter at the nation has determined that the team needs a change. author of the redskins encyclopedia, he is a long time fan of the team. also on skype, sue san harjo, she's president of the morning star institute an american civil

rights organization, also actively protesting the name for years. and regina, a former tribal councilwoman and a redskins fan. dave, let's start with you. what's the big deal? why change the name? >> it's defined in webster's dictionary as a slur. the team, representing the nation's capital, should it be called something that offends so many people. that's the key question and how does the nfl want to represent civility to its -- itself to its fans? come out and vocally defend its name? >> talk about the origin of the name and the historic relationship between the team and native americans. >> well, the team has a very, very strong relationship with native americans. going all the way back to 1932, while the original name of the

team was the braves, they played in boston, the boston braves. the following season they changed their name to redskins. they started playing at fenway park, the home of the boston red sox. and george preston marshall took the name, and that's how he came up with redskins. he also named team in honor of his coach that year lone star deitz who claimed to be a part sioux. >> any of the owners that have led the redskins, nothing offensive or disparaging or pe i don'pejorative by that name. >> something as a mascot evokes

something positive why does it matter? >> well, i think it's just a little pecular that they would cling so long and so hard to inanimate objects and to these false personnas, all of native america in the way that we measure our views, all our native organizations say change this name that it's a slur, it is a pejorative. and it doesn't matter who means it or who doesn't. what matters is the effect. the people who are doing the offending don't get to say what hurts or what's the nature of the offense. >> our community is chiming in lisa as you can imagine. institutionalize, it shouldn't be a question of should they change their name but when. >> and then kevin says those against changing the name are mostly nonnative and ignore our

history of genocide. rey jeerregina you are a native american, what is your position? >> thank you, advice, born and raised on the res and resides on her res. there are plenty in indian country who reside on the res who love the washington redskins support the name and don't feel it's pejorative. what i find suspect is primarily this campaign being led by urban indians with essentially no connection to their tribe and so they're out of touch with what truly are the concerns of india's in india -- yindns in when there are other issues that are more -- tangible and of

substance to people who live on the res. for example substandard health care, inadequate housing, crubt tribal politicians, tribe members being illegally disenrolled. when we have a spotlight and the mic and we're talking about a sports franchise people have lost their way, more importantly the fact of the matter is, hypothetically if this name was to change, how does that stages change what is going on in indian country? >> i see you raising your happened. i'm mad by things that have said so far. first of all it is absolute historical revisionism, to say knowledge jo marble was an open proud segregationist, and let me finish we're going to do this one person at a time. >> absolutely no correlation.

>> absolutely -- yeah, mike first of all mike i want to thank you mike for being on this show because no one on the team will ever come on the show to defend the teams. it's amazing that ajam has found someone to defend that. this is the last team to every integrate in the league. there is study after academic study that shows that the use of native american mass cots actually allows the dominant culture to turn a blind eye to the very problems on the res that regina describes. the taking on the poverty that she is describing and then the last point if i could the last thing i should say is regina said something profoundly offensive. there are tribal council to tribal council from the choctaw to the american indian movement,

who oppose the name, is profoundingly misleading for your audience. >> but suzanne is saying the same thing. regina go ahead and speak and then mike we'll get to you. assembly appreciate that. the crux of the matter, let's go to the declaration of independence, uses the phrase, merciless native american indian. you should be leading the fight with the federal government. i think some of your action he are suspect. i respect some of your work, you have done good work in the past but forfeiting the spotlight on this issue is a disservice for those who live on the res. getting back to the founder of the redskins, any founderrer of a business is not going to set up the name and essentially

hijack its success. when he named this team the redskins he did that on the premise that indigenous people were strong warriors, to demonstrate and represent who these native americans are. >> despite those in support of the redskins name, mike i want to get you in before we hit the break. >> when george preston marshall formed that name, being a warrior is what he metropolitan by the nickname. thank you also for coming on dave, saying okay because marshall was the last owner to integrate in the nfl, i've never come across anything like that. marshall was a showman, okay, and he thought with having this native american theme with the redskins he would draw more

people to -- >> he love minute centralcy, i -- minsthalcy, he's right. >> we're going to hilt the pause button now. also this is not just a redskins problem. native american mass cots do symbolize a lot of other teams across the country so why the focus on this particular team? do you think the others should be subject to similar criticism? tweet us. we'll talk about it after the break. (vo) al jazeera america (vo) al jazeera america we understand that every news we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. rescuing stranded residents. (vo) we pursue that story beyond

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why welcome back. we're talking about native americans, washington redskins, other teams that have similar type names, should they change their names as well? >> andrew: the redskins should change their names. the indians should stop the chop. black hawks oar native american tribe. however redskins have a racial overtone. chief wahoo has something to do, only the redskins is used as a term of dereiteration. >> so suzanne, i want to talk about the political and financial implications of changing the names. there are about 700 colleges universities high schools that all use some sort of native

american mascot. if the redskins were to change their name what would be the trickle down effect, what would your expectations be? >> most of the professional teams have changed. we have already changed two-thirds of these so-called native references in sports. since 1970. so that's the good news. we've changed over 2,000. and we just have about 900 left. let's talk about who speaks for whom. i was just out at the national conference of indians session and talked in the plenary session and did an update and over two dozen people took to the microphones on the floor and not one was in opposition and a resolution commending the president for speaking out on this and calling on various administration representatives to do certain things, was passed

unanimously at every level. no opposition. now, that is not the same thing as my spewing some opinion that i have that may be an isolate opinion. this is an opinion of native america the way we speak through our organizations. >> dave, speaking of the national council of american indians, blackie wetzel was the one that encouraged the redskins to use the independence chief head on the helmet, he was the one that convinced them oget rid of the vince lombardi logo, is it one or both? >> it is everything, as we are having a discussion, a woman by the name of mary phillips of the

oem hawes nation, the story she talked about, being bullied and being called a red skin. and a high school team called the indians, a banner, we'll leave the indians with a trail of tears. that was viral and went around. the thing about these mass cots, it makes us stupider about our history. i can say that, as an american, we can't afford to be much stupider to our history. as we comicallous to our history, we not only disrespect people, our ancestors, people who suffered but we make it that much more difficult to address very real 21st century problems on the reservations. >> reregina what do you say for that? we may not have regina back.

>> may i speak to that? >> sure go ahead. >> i wanted to speak on walter wetzel. the saying at the same time the name and the logo, should be eliminated? i mean, i don't understand the connection there. here we have a man, he was the most powerful native american in the country at the time, in the '50s and '60s when he was the president of ncai. so how do you justify the fact that today you want to change that? >> well, mike let -- >> when did he that, he did not have the emprimatur of ncai. he was not speaking for the organization when he was promoting that kind of stereotyping. >> would we ever say? i don't get it, in the 1950s you had water fountains for black people and white people,

what's the big deal, sports is incredibly powerful as a cultural shaper in this country and it should reflect the fact that this is a changing nation. >> let me get some perspective, on facebook, has everything to do with correctness make a moral and principled decision. this is from the national conference of american independence, new york jews, san francisco chinamen, very controversial. the pressure has to come from the fans, the only people getting the word in. mark video comment. >> i'm from central new york and the national leader ray halbritter has come out, making a statement like that very obvious that the nation is in fact racist. the redskins belong to daniel schneider. it is clearly a lucrative one.

you have to talk to daniel schneider on a dollars and cents bottom line. >> let's talk about the color green. the third most valuable franchise is the redskins after the patriots and the lions. >> loved going to the games in d.c., he's never been shy about the fact that he wants the team inside washington, d.c. and not out in landover maryland which as many knows not easy to get to, not easy to leave the stadium is now one of the older ones in the national football league. and the d.c. city council and the mayor have made it very clear if you want public funding if you want tax breaks if you want that stadium inside washington, d.c. the name has got to change. and i have to think at the end of the day that's going to be the mow compelling factor.

>> mike, how would it affect the fans? >> the fans would be devastated. the redskins fans only know the term redskins as a matter of pride. it is their football team and the redskins fan base everybody i speak to does not want a name change. it would be very odd for a redskins fan to come out and say hey you know, we think the name of the team should be changed. i mean this is a name that goes back more than 80 years, which leads to my point, and that is, i believe it is a matter of political correctness today that we are on this route. and i don't think it's right. i think it really is doing damage in a sense to our society that we're being so sensitive like this. this is a sports nickname. and it's only been known as that. >> couple of points. first of all there was actually a poll taken, almost 80% of washington football fans said it would have no effect on how they feel about the team and 23% of

people in the d.c. maryland virginia area said they would be more likely to root for the team. if they changed -- >> but the poll -- >> yeah but there's been a massive shift in the last 6'8" months. >> but the poll said 80% would not be offended by -- they have no problem with the washington redskins. >> as that enters sports i'd be happy to send the poll out to anybody, survey u.s.a. poll, that's the poll coming. the second point i believe pertains -- >> make it quick. >> if native americans would be, it's 0.6 per of the region, we have to be like responsible for the history of why it's only 0.6% and the tream name absolutely has to change. >> coming up, if the washington redskins were to change their name, what do you think they would be called? send us your choices.

right after the break. >> and now a techknow minute... >> and now a techknow minute...

>> welcome back. we're talking about the

washington redskins and whether they should change their name. we asked our community to send in their ideas just in case the team made the move and came to us for suggestions. we got some interesting ones. >> lots of interesting ones. chris said reddish but not in a racist way skins. and then tad, i sway but we need to call them the red next. and then andrew, calling them the washington honey bees. and finally the red blues covering both republicans and democrats. >> awesome. my favorite, dave's name, the shutdowns. i love it. do you think this movement is going odie down or is it going to accelerate? >> this isn't going anywhere. the washington team has been protected for the last 20 years because of their own mediocrity.

but robert griffin iii has been bringing the team into the spotlight. the presence of native american voice like oneida, dan schneider hats been teaching a master class in antiindian relations. nervous about standing with him, and those who want to change the name that much more serious about doing it. >> i think you have to lay off dan schneider. he nature inherited the team in. >> you know how obnoxious he's been about this. >> he is not the only redskins owner who has said no about changing the name. i wanted to go back to the polls that you mentioned earlier dave.

the one in 2004 by the a nrveghtsavert -- anavert institute, concluded that 90% of native americans had no trouble with the nickname. that's to knee crux. what does native americans feel? let me finish please. >> it is a profoundly discredited poll. >> they didn't know who was on the other end of that poll. >> you could say that on any poll. >> how terrible that poll -- >> other terms in our society we know are very disparaging, this is not as cut and dry. that poll 90% there are more than 60 high schools in the country or 60 schools in the country that use the nickname redskins. let me give you an example. the spokane tribe, spokane in washington state, their high

school is called the red skips. the student body is 90% native american. to me, i'm not convinced. there's got to be some type of majority of native americans who are offended by this term. >> mike let's get some community in. tiffany says if there comes a point where you're that offended don't buy their stuff. on the other side, dennis says, all this is disgusting and offensive. suzanne what are your thoughts? >> all this nonsense about polling us and everything all you have to do is ask us. we've been saying over and over and over again, through all our national organizations, educators, journalists, elders, tribal leaders, any way you want to slice native american society, everyone has said, we want an end to all of these racist stereotypes and cultural

appropriations. >> dave, we've got about 40 seconds left in the show, why don't you wrap it up for us. >> full column about how his father-in-law who's native american loves the redskins name. his father-in-law got in touch with rick reilly and said that's not what i said, please print a retraction. rick reilly refused to do it. he had to publish his own column. masses of native americans and organizations saying, this offends us yet a lot of folks like dan schneider and others are not listening. >> thanks oall of our guests, dave, suzanne, regina and mike. until next time waj and i will see you online.

>> hello and welcome to al jazeera america, i'm jonathan betz in new york. egypt in turmoil. protest triggered by young women behind bars. the crime they're convicted of. political tension. military muscle being waged over the sea in japan. and what joe biden hopes to put pressure,. and the holiday season is underway, the deals to be had and where help is most needed.