For what it's worth, if you read the actual essay on the Husky logo, it's not actually about the logo.
As far as the Redskins name,
you may want to read up on the Phips Proclamation, which was issued by the Lt. Governor of Massachussetts in 1755, which
put a literal bounty on the scalps of Penobscot Indians. As in, if you went out and killed an Indian, cut off his scalp and hair and brought it to the Governor, they gave you twenty pounds. Now I don't know if this is the actual origin of the term Redskins. However, I wouldn't argue with those Native Americans who believe it is (but then, I try not to be an unless it's for a good reason).
Good points but -
I read the letter from the student and she states the following - using the word 'offended'
"As a UConn student who is proud of my University’s academics and my future degree, I feel frustrated; as a woman student living at this campus I am outright
offended. I am appalled by the selective amnesia these justifications display and angered at the superficiality of this Visual Identity Program."
The new husky logo is part of the Visual Identity Program in my eyes. I don't agree just stating all things offend someone these days."
http://thefeministwire.com/2013/04/an-open-letter-to-uconn-president-susan-herbst/
I have not read up on the Phips Proclamation however I believe that scalps were paid for. They were fighting one another and proof of killing an Indian was the scalp as opposed to dragging the whole body in. Also, the Redskins football team helmet has an Indian whose scalp is still attached - with a full head of hair - so that Redskin is a person of Redskin, not an Indian with its scalp removed. However, I don't believe that to be the origin of Redskin - as a matter of fact I believe the origin to be that of the Indians themselves - a way the described themselves differently from the 'white' man or Europeans. I believe it to be the color of their skin - the same way they describe the 'white man'.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_...hington_football_team_s_name_incorrectly.html
Some portions -
'There's a lot of disagreement even over what Redskins mean. Some people say it's a European term that referred to the fact that Indians there painted their faces red. Other people say, no, it refers to American Indians being scalped, two very different things, I think. But if you look in the dictionary, in pretty much every dictionary it's referred to as an offensive term. That would give me pause if I ever happened to own a football [team] to have that name. And I think it is offensive. The fact that a lot of people don't find it offensive probably has to do with the fact that they probably don't know exactly what it means.'
'In 2005, the Indian language scholar Ives Goddard of the Smithsonian Institution published a remarkable and consequential study of
redskin's early history. His findings shifted the dates for the word's first appearance in print by more than a century and shed an awkward light on the contemporary debate. Goddard found, in summary, that "the actual origin of the word is entirely benign."
Redskin, he learned, had not emerged first in English or any European language. The English term, in fact, derived from Native American phrases involving the color red in combination with terms for flesh, skin, and man. These phrases were part of a racial vocabulary that Indians often used to designate themselves in opposition to others whom they (like the Europeans) called
black,
white, and so on.'
'It was used at the White House when President Madison requested that various Indian tribes steer clear of an alliance with Britain. No Ears, a chief of the Little Osages, spoke in reply and one of his statements was translated as, "I know the manners of the whites and the red skins." Only in 2004, however, when the Papers of James Madison project at the University of Virginia reached the year 1812 did this and another use of
redskin from the same meeting come to light.
The word became even more well known when the Meskwaki chief Black Thunder delivered a speech at a treaty conference after the War of 1812. Black Thunder, whose words were translated by an interpreter, said that he would speak calmly and without fear, adding, "I turn to all, red skins and white skins, and challenge an accusation against me."
In the coming years,
redskin became a key element of the English-language rhetoric used by Indians and Americans alike to speak about each other and to each other. Goddard mentions numerous Indian speeches that were translated and printed in English-language newspapers. From such speeches, Goddard observes, James Fenimore Cooper almost certainly learned the word, which he then began using in his novels in the 1820s.'
Now I don't know if this is the actual origin of the term Redskins. However, I wouldn't argue with those Native Americans who believe it is (but then, I try not to be an unless it's for a good reason) - but if I don't find it offensive, I don't find it offensive.
