In a move to be even more sensitive to minor outrage, Slate, Mother Jones and The New Republic all announced that they will no longer refer to the Washington Redskins as the Redskins.
Slate first announced its decision on the site on Aug. 8, with The New Republic and Mother Jones following suit shortly after. Slate took the opportunity to bash owner Daniel Snyder and even admitted that the term wasn’t that offensive.
“The name Redskins is only a bit offensive, it’s extremely tacky and dated — like an old aunt who still talks about ‘colored people’ or limps her wrist to suggest someone’s gay,” David Plotz wrote on the site.
Franklin Foer, editor of The New Republic, tweeted that Plotz’s argument was “air-tight” and that the magazine would be changing its stylebook to reflect the omission of the team name.
Kevin Drum of Mother Jones wrote a piece where he said, “Dan Snyder’s team would be the R-word, to go along with the N-word and the C-word and all the others.”
The three outlets are more than 10 months behind the Washington City Paper, which chose to adopt the alternative name of the Washington Pigskins to refer to the team last October. Dan Snyder has publicly stated numerous times that he has no plans to change the team name.