May 22, 2014

50 Senators Call on Washington Football Team to Change Name

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Fifty senators have called out NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, urging the league to change the racist name of Washington’s football team. Referencing the NBA’s strong response to racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, they wrote in a letter to Goodell, “Now is the time for the NFL to act. The Washington, DC football team is on the wrong side of history. What message does it send to punish slurs against African Americans while endorsing slurs about Native Americans?”

The main letter, first given to the New York Times, was circulated by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and signed by 46 other Democrats and two independents. (Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), ever the lone wolf, decided to send his own letter also calling for a name change.) Virginia’s pair of senators were among the five Dems who didn’t sign; the letter was not circulated among Republicans.

The NFL released a statement in response that defended the name, but continued the softening of the league’s tone toward critics: “The intent of the team’s name has always been to present a strong, positive and respectful image. The name is not used by the team or the NFL in any other context, though we respect those that view it differently.” The team itself declined to comment, though owner Dan Snyder can rest easy knowing he was absolved of racism months ago.

Read the full letter below:

 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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