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Attention Edmonton Eskimos: Inuit are not mascots


Slegr

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A good read from the Globe and Mail. When I first heard about complaints and desire for a name change some years ago, I wasn't as convinced. But now it just seems very ugly to still use the name as a Canadian sports team.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/attention-edmonton-eskimos-inuit-are-not-mascots/article27512855/

Attention Edmonton Eskimos: Inuit are not mascots

Natan Obed is the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national Inuit organization

As the leader of the 60,000 Canadian Inuit in this country, I am compelled to take a stand in solidarity with all other Indigenous peoples calling for an end to the use of our peoples as sports team mascots. For Inuit, our concern is with Edmonton’s CFL team, which continues to use the outdated term Eskimos as their moniker.

The word Eskimo is not only outdated, it is now largely considered a derogatory term. It has never been our term. When Inuit mobilized in the 1970s to protect our rights, we started using the term Inuit to describe our people because that is our way of describing ourselves. No other society has a right to impose their terminology upon us.

We have overcome many colonial policies towards our society and culture to stand as proud Canadian Inuit today. There are no more residential schools that take our children away from our parents at the age of five. We have the right to vote. We are not forced to relocate where we live upon the whims of government. At one time in Canadian society, these things were determined by others to be what was best for Inuit - or, should I say best for Eskimos.

The Edmonton team name - that is drawing even more attention, now that the team is going to the Grey Cup - was not chosen by Inuit. And I reject any arguments that the name is benign and has positive intent to align the Edmonton football team culture with Inuit strength or spirit.

The CFL football team does not honour our culture, our history, our present, or our future. The name is an enduring relic of colonial power. That force enabled Indigenous identity to be appropriated and redefined as a branding tool for non-Indigenous entertainment, during a time when our children were taken from us, our lands were being developed without our consent, and we were being moved around as human flagpoles for Canadian Arctic Sovereignty.

Indigenous people deserve to be treated with respect and as equals. In the spirit of the enormous amount of work that has been done in Canada to achieve true and lasting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, I call on the owners of the Edmonton franchise to change the team name to a non-Indigenous moniker.

I call on all media to stop using the term Eskimos in your reporting so as to respect Inuit. I also call on all owners or sports groups that still use Indigenous peoples as mascots - the Cleveland Indians, the Washington Redskins, to just name a few. To these organizations: The time is now to be on the right side of history. Change your name.

Let’s do our part in the world of sports to help move away from all dehumanizing and disrespectful legacies of the past and move towards true and lasting reconciliation. Indigenous people and our cultures deserve to be treated with dignity, equality and respect just as much on the field of play as anywhere else in 2015.

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18 minutes ago, ThaManbeast said:

There's no negative connotation here. The players on the team are proud to be Eskimos. It's not like the team name is racist slang like the Red Skins.

I think Eskimo is bad, at least from what I have learned here.  Eskimos call themselves Inuit, and find the term Eskimo insulting.  Redblacks is a worse name though.  Is that two racial slurs put into a compound word?

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38 minutes ago, TOMapleLaughs said:

Attention Saskatchewan Roughriders: Your team is named after a brand of condoms.

 

Attention Winnipeg Blue Bombers: Your team is named after the consumption of a mixture of Blue curacao and Red Bull.

 

Attention Toronto Argonauts: Greek mythology belongs to Greece.

 

Attention Calgary Stampeders: Your team glorifies the potentially violent mass movement of cattle.

 

Attention BC Lions: In wake of trophy hunting backlash in Africa you must change your name.

 

Attention Montreal Allouette's: The song Alouette is incredibly offensive as it details people cruelly plucking a lark alive.

 

Attention Hamilton Tiger-Cats: See BC Lions.

 

Attention Ottawa Redblacks: The team name is just offensively bad.

 

You PC, bro?

The name is an enduring relic of colonial power. What is there not to understand about that? Your examples are neither here nor there.

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7 minutes ago, Offensive Threat said:

The Inuit and Yupik are the 2 main members of the Eskimo family. You may consider it derogatory if you like but it is the correct terminology regardless of how you feel about it.

They consider it derogatory and it's not really for outsiders to argue.

And, regardless, it's more about making a mascot of a racial/cultural group without their blessing or benefit.

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17 minutes ago, Offensive Threat said:

The Inuit and Yupik are the 2 main members of the Eskimo family. You may consider it derogatory if you like but it is the correct terminology regardless of how you feel about it.

That's interesting.  I have never heard of that.  How about we are all Canadians?  

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