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Minnesota Democrat Calls Redskins Game At College Football Stadium ‘Racist’

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Democratic House Rep. Betty McCollum has sent a sternly worded letter to the owner of the Minnesota Vikings declaring that the Washington Redskins are not welcome to play a scheduled NFL game against the Minnesota Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium, the football stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

In her letter, the congresswoman told Vikings owner Zygi Wilf that the “presence of the Washington franchise and their racist name on the University of Minnesota campus would be in violation of the Board of Regents’ Equity, Diversity, Equal Opportunity, and Affirmative Action Policy,” reports The College Fix.

“The name of the Washington franchise is clearly an offensive racial slur,” she proclaimed, and “commercialization of that hateful slur” is “so hurtful to our Native American brothers and sisters.”

The regular season game is slated for Nov. 2. The stadium is the the temporary home of the Vikings for the next two seasons while a new stadium is under construction.

The policy Rep. McCollum cites says, in pertinent part, that the University of Minnesota must “establish and nurture an environment… that actively acknowledges and values equity and is free from racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia and other forms of prejudice, intolerance or harassment,” according to the Fix.

McCollum stops short of demanding that the Vikings cancel the home game. She also manages to avoid uttering the word “Redskins” even once. However, she does demand that Wilf agree with her and criticize the name of the Redskins.

The congresswoman penned her disparaging missive after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stripped the Redskins team of the trademark to its logo. (RELATED: 12 Trademarks Declared Less Offensive Than Redskins)

The U.S. Patent Office received exactly zero complaints about the name of the Washington Redskins prior to the cancellation. (RELATED: U.S. Patent Office Received Exactly ZERO Complaints About ‘Redskins’)

A University of Minnesota spokeswoman, Julie Christensen, told the Fix that the school is “very sensitive to the use of sports team names that promote stereotypes.”

Though there isn’t anything the school can do to ban the game, Christensen added that school officials endeavor “to create an environment for faculty, staff, students and visitors that acknowledges and values equity and diversity.”

Meanwhile, Brandon Alkire, a spokesman for the school’s American Indian Student Cultural Center, said he is currently planning to plan student protests of the football game.

“Fifty years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been signed and yet we are still fighting for the most simplistic of recognition, to be considered human,” Alkire told the Fix.

“I, personally, would be part of a protest if one was organized, and I know that there probably will be one,” he added.

The University of Minnesota has seen some similar kerfuffles in recent months.

Just last month, The Daily Caller reported that members of a radical leftist group at the University of Minnesota have demanded that the school confess that it “exists as a product of” colonial evil and must therefore force every student to take a class covering “gender non-conforming issues.” (RELATED: Minnesota Radicals Demand Mandatory Transgender Classes Because Of Colonialism OR ELSE)

Back in March, a small group of angry white liberals tried to force the school’s administration to revoke a speaking invitation extended to Condoleezza Rice because she played a role in the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The protesters did have one salient point: Rice was charging the taxpayer-funded school a speaking fee of $150,000 — about $100,000 less than Hillary Clinton’s typical fee for the same service. (RELATED: Bitter White Liberals Urge University Of Minnesota To Rescind Condi Rice Speaking Invitation)

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