Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s congressional delegate, called Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s refusal to consider changing what many consider is the football team’s ethnically offensive nickname “disturbing.”
Ms. Norton, while speaking on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown,” accused Mr. Snyder of hypocrisy, pointing out that when he sued the Washington City Paper over an article critical of his management style, he accused the weekly publication of disparaging his Jewish heritage.
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“So here is a man who has shown sensibilities based on his own ethnic identity who refuses to recognized the sensibilities of American Indians,” said Ms. Norton, who has co-sponsored bipartisan legislation aimed at forcing the team to drop the name.
A recent Associated Press poll showed that 79 percent of Americans said the team should be allowed to keep the Redskins name. But Ms. Norton Washington-area residents would support a name change if they were “educated to what the reasons” are for it.
The delegate said Mr. Snyder would make a lot of money from a name change through increased merchandise sales.
She added she is Redskins fans and that her comments are “said with love.”
