Washington, D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on today’s announcement that the Washington football team will retire its current name in favor of another to be announced later.
“The campaign to end this form of racism has been going on for years, but the team owner and many of the people who have profited from it have insisted they’d never change. Today’s announcement comes because those profits are drying up after years of tireless campaigning to end this injustice. Native Americans have faced racism since before our country was even founded, and today is a chance for all of us to reflect on the many other ways we’ve done them harm and can start to make amends. This change ends one instance of associating Native men, women and children with fundamentally racist branding, but there are many other instances and the people responsible for them need to make the same change.”