The Washington Redskins changed their name, but should they keep the word "Redskins" or drop it? Ezra takes a look at the history of the team's name and explains why the name change is a bad idea.
00:01:12.840Four years ago, I told you about this huge story in the Washington Post. New poll finds
00:01:23.800nine in 10 Native Americans aren't offended by Redskins' name. I called it a huge story
00:01:30.140back then because the Washington Post put a team of eight reporters on that story. I've
00:01:36.020never heard of that before, have you? Other than maybe covering a federal election or a
00:01:40.780war. Eight? And the Washington Post commissioned a large survey of over 500 Indians for that
00:01:47.820poll. That's hard to do. That's not just taking random names out of the phone book. You have
00:01:52.540to make sure, you know, you're talking to real Indians. I don't know enough about how
00:01:57.460the U.S. handles Indian bands, for one thing. I don't think they call them Indian bands like
00:02:03.260we do up here. But my point is, that's a big survey. That's hard to do. But a poll is a
00:02:08.480poll. 500 actual Indians were asked. Not liberals in a CNN studio, not virtue-signaling politicians.
00:02:16.680Actual people who might have standing to say, I'm offended by a sports team called the Redskins.
00:02:22.880And nine out of ten just weren't. You could tell the Post was sort of shocked.
00:02:26.340Let me remind you of two more questions from that poll that I showed you four years ago.
00:02:31.780In general, do you feel the word redskin is disrespectful of Native Americans or not?
00:02:38.00073% said not. I'm trying to think of what that would be like for me if someone said the word
00:02:43.540Hebrew instead of Jew. I don't know. I'm trying. Or frankly, these days, some people are even afraid
00:02:49.380to say the word Jew. They think it sounds too harsh. So they say Jewish person. People are so afraid.
00:02:55.200If there were a sports team called the Brooklyn Hebrews, I think I'd love it. I'd probably get
00:03:02.240some of their merchandise. You bet I'd go to games if I were in town. And I'd make sure to order some
00:03:07.100deli sandwiches, which would surely be for sale at the stadium. And if someone said, aren't you mad
00:03:12.620that this fun sports team that is obviously proud of your people, aren't you mad that they call you a
00:03:18.140Hebrew? Instead of a Jewish person, I'd say, oh, shut up. That's what I think this is like.
00:03:26.200Here's another way the Post put the question to their 500 Indian poll answerers.
00:03:30.940If a non-Native American person called you a Redskin, would you be personally offended or not?
00:03:40.02080% said no. Now, I don't think I'd say that word myself. I never have. But I'm a politically
00:03:47.300alert person in the year 2020. This sports team was founded in 1932. It was originally called the
00:03:54.960Braves. And then the next year changed to the Redskins. That's how people talked back then.
00:03:59.280We had different words for many things back then. It's like the NAACP, which was founded in 1909.
00:04:08.380Do you know that stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? That was the
00:04:14.340height of progressive language back then. You'd never hear that phrase. Now, the United Negro College
00:04:21.740Fund was set up in 1944. Same thing. That was a progressive, neutral name.
00:04:29.280Today, the website doesn't even write out its name in full. It just goes by initials. It's so shy of its name
00:04:34.980that its mother gave it. Obviously, both of these organizations were started not only by African
00:04:41.060Americans, but by African Americans who deeply loved and cared for the success of all American blacks.
00:04:46.560It's absurd to say those names are hateful or bigoted. Our language has changed. Sure,
00:04:52.540these organizations have always been what they are. And I think that's how it is with sports teams.
00:04:59.220My own high school teams were called the Red Men, which I think is at least one degree less prickly
00:05:05.260than red skins. Yes, it makes color reference to skin color. Yeah. So does, I don't know,
00:05:11.820Black Lives Matter. We talk about race far too much, I think, but it's a conversation we're having.
00:05:18.980Always have, I think. Maybe always will, I think. Naming a sports team after something or someone is
00:05:24.460always positive. No one names himself something negative. It's always something strong or fast
00:05:30.520or honorable or epic in sports. You don't name yourself something denigrating. It is a sign of respect
00:05:36.500to the characteristics of Aboriginal people. And as the poll shows, 9 out of 10 real American Indians
00:05:42.520agree. Look at this. Here's a senior Indian leader. Every time the team owner would invite a senior
00:05:51.920Aboriginal leader to watch the game with him in his box seats, he'd fly him in by private jet, put him
00:05:58.160up in a nice hotel. Great weekend. If you're an Indian elder and you were sitting with the big boss of
00:06:03.540the team, watching a team called the Redskins play, it's got to be pretty exciting. I don't think he
00:06:10.220would go to that if it were demeaning. And you're treated as a VIP. That's got to be an amazing feeling.
00:06:17.520As I've mentioned before, every actual Indian I know wears Indian-themed clothing.
00:06:24.980His practic brazo, the senator, wearing a Redskins hat. My favorite Indian chief, Clarence Louis of the
00:06:31.840Soyuz Band, he always wears Indian-brand clothes. He loves it. And they're good-looking clothes.
00:06:39.100If there was a team about my tribe, and I guess Jews have tribes, you bet I'd wear the gear. I'd
00:06:47.040probably even care about the sport a little bit. Imagine all this kerfuffle. Here's what the
00:06:53.480Washington Post said in their massive story four years ago.
00:06:56.440Those interviewed highlighted again and again other challenges to their communities that they consider
00:07:03.480much more urgent than an NFL team's name. Substandard schools, substance abuse, unemployment.
00:07:12.460Let's start taking care of our people and quit worrying about names like Washington Redskins,
00:07:17.680said Randy Whitworth, 58, who lives on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.
00:07:22.220Exactly. It's easy for politicians to dress up in costumes and make little speeches and demand that
00:07:31.020the Redskins or the Braves or the Chiefs or the Black Hawks or the Red Men or the countless other
00:07:35.720Indian-themed names change their names. I mean, Justin Trudeau even has a generic Indian tattoo on his
00:07:42.540shoulder. So you know he cares. That's what he tells white people. But when actual Indians,
00:07:48.420sorry, Indigenous persons, ask him for some help, like for example, five years into his term as Prime
00:07:55.540Minister, maybe they can have some clean drinking water by now. Well, then he shows them the real
00:08:00.560Justin Trudeau and he speaks with a forked tongue. That we invest in the middle class and in people
00:08:07.720working hard to join it. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you.
00:08:12.480Thank you very much for your donation tonight. I really appreciate the donation to the Liberal Party
00:08:25.980of Canada. And as we know, the Liberal Party is filled with different perspectives and different
00:08:34.240opinions and we respect them all. And our commitment to reconciliation continues to be strong and committed.
00:08:40.180And we will continue to engage. Thank you, sir, for your donation to the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:08:46.220I really appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you for being here. That is why we are moving
00:08:51.000forward on reconciliation in a real and tangible way. Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here tonight.
00:08:57.600Thank you for highlighting how important reconciliation is. Thank you for being here tonight, sir.
00:09:03.680Thank you very much for your donation to the Liberal Party.
00:09:06.200Yeah, it's like Trudeau's male feminism. It's like his blackface. You know, Trudeau doesn't
00:09:11.240actually give a damn about Indians precisely because he has an Indian tattoo on his shoulder.
00:09:16.600Isn't that enough? In his mind, that's all he needed to do. He doesn't actually have to solve
00:09:21.080any real problems. You know, Aunt Jemima's syrup, Uncle Ben's rice, they're gone. They're both deleted.
00:09:26.940Why? Because they're black. They're not being mocked in these ads. Why are you canceling black
00:09:33.960people from things that everyone likes? Why are you canceling that pretty young woman from the
00:09:38.760land of lakes butter? Did you just, did you just end racism? Tell me, tell me, come on. Did you just
00:09:46.500save the world from racism by having a little fit on Twitter about Aunt Jemima's syrup? And you just
00:09:52.700solved racism. Yeah, no, it doesn't work that way. Well, it's 2020 and the Wokarati haven't been this
00:10:00.020confident since Mao's Red Guards in the 1970s. If you haven't seen my special 90-minute episode about
00:10:06.120the Cultural Revolution and the photos taken by a red-color news soldier, you really should. We'll
00:10:11.500put the link to it under this video. I did it on my Noonday show a week ago. That's what's going on
00:10:16.340here. So the Redskins caved. Here's the news. Redskins to drop name yielding to pressure from
00:10:23.020sponsors and activists. The NFL team in Washington announced the move on Monday and will continue
00:10:28.200its search for a new name and logo. Sponsors and activists, I can guarantee you they were all white.
00:10:35.300Maybe the odd official Indian, and by that I mean someone who's really a paid actor, a paid lobbyist
00:10:40.720who rents himself out to the media as a spokesman for all Indigenous people. Whatever you want,
00:10:45.800he'll say it. Just like Black Lives Matter claims to speak for all blacks when polls show. In fact,
00:10:50.540most blacks are deeply against the violent protests. But we already had the stats. 90% of real Indians
00:10:57.040were fine with the name. It's the liberal whites who are terrified. That's why they're making the
00:11:01.820change. But as my friend Joe Warmington asked on Twitter, is it really enough though? Can they keep
00:11:09.720the Washington part? Or do both names have to go? That's a great point because you know George
00:11:17.160Washington, well, he's out of vogue these days too. I mean, for starters, he founded America,
00:11:22.500the racist, fascist regime. But more to the point, he had slaves. He had black slaves.
00:11:27.840I mean, take it from the media party. They got to destroy Mount Rushmore.
00:11:32.720Donald Trump chose the most grandiose symbol of U.S. imperialism on Earth to usher in a very
00:11:40.400on-brand star-spangled spectacle. The mother of all photo ops, Mount Rushmore. And we know why this
00:11:47.340president just can't resist going there. President Trump will be at Mount Rushmore where he'll be
00:11:53.400standing in front of a monument of two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans.
00:11:59.180We have to acknowledge that Mount Rushmore is sitting on Lakota land. The place Donald Trump
00:12:04.240is going to on Friday is stolen land. He will inevitably and predictably talk about our heritage.
00:12:15.320In other words, he will talk about he is the protector of white America. And to indigenous people,
00:12:22.840Mount Rushmore with four white presidents, two of whom were slave owners, is one of those symbols.
00:12:28.380Questions have really been raised about Thomas Jefferson in particular, but also George Washington
00:12:33.580for their holdings of slaves. It's worth reminding folks that the man who carved the monument behind
00:12:39.780me had deep ties to the KKK. There are other issues. The sculptor,
00:12:44.000Goodson Borglum, was a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan. That, of course, is something in all the history books.
00:12:51.020Yeah, it's a big hassle to change a team name like the Redskins, especially a team that's almost 100 years
00:12:56.160old. Think of all the merchandise and the branding and the ads. You don't want to change names too
00:13:01.900often. Better drop the Washington part two while you're at it. I mean, some activists and sponsors
00:13:09.460won't like it, and that's how we're living our lives now. Stay with us for more.
00:13:15.580Well, you would think British Columbia would be the province that had the most deaths from the
00:13:32.240Chinese coronavirus. After all, there are the most flights to Vancouver from China. There's a large
00:13:38.160population that goes back and forth, a lot of Chinese foreign students there. But actually,
00:13:43.860they have one of the lowest death rates in the country. There are almost 9,000 Canadians who
00:13:50.100have passed away from the coronavirus. But B.C., with a population of 5 million, has had only 187
00:13:57.640deaths. Now, of course, every death is a tragedy, but this is less than the annual flu season. And as
00:14:05.200you can see from this beautiful chart that's published by data from the B.C. government,
00:14:13.100right now there are only 16 people in the entire province who are in the hospital, only five people
00:14:21.680in intensive care. One in one million British Columbians is in intensive care. Sixteen.
00:14:29.860There are about 50 major hospitals in British Columbia. So you'd have to hunt maybe one in four
00:14:39.620has a patient from the virus. It's simply over. Whatever the reasons are or things we can study.
00:14:48.140But here's the thing. British Columbia is still in some ways under lockdown, even though the pandemic
00:14:55.880is over. In fact, you could argue it never really actually came to B.C. I was looking at some
00:15:02.580statistics the other day that I shared with you. The number of British Columbians dying from another
00:15:07.260Chinese plague, this is fentanyl and other illegal opioid drugs, is more than double the number who have
00:15:15.840died from the virus. There are pandemics in B.C. The coronavirus ain't one of them. So why is B.C.
00:15:24.440under still a sort of lockdown, a kind of house arrest? Well, I'm not the only person asking that.
00:15:32.000Our friend John Carpe, the executive director of the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms,
00:15:36.460is asking that. In fact, he's going beyond asking it. He is challenging the lockdown measures in a new
00:15:44.640analysis called Benefits Assumed, Harms Ignored. And John Carpe joins us now via Skype. John, great to see you.
00:15:54.440I'm so glad that you are fighting for civil liberties in the era of the pandemic. Too many people are afraid
00:16:00.020to even say, hey, what are we doing? This is madness.
00:16:04.320We asked Prime Minister Trudeau and all the premiers, all of the chief medical officers back in April,
00:16:11.240so we're talking three months ago, what are the projected, anticipated harms of the lockdown in terms of
00:16:18.460anxiety, depression, alcoholism, drug overdoses, spousal abuse, child abuse, suicides, people driven
00:16:26.800to despair, and less money being available to pay for health care once we cripple and quasi-destroy
00:16:33.040our economy? Because I wonder how many people are going to be marching in the streets six or 12 months
00:16:39.480from now when governments cut health care spending by 20% because we're broke, because we destroyed our
00:16:44.480economy. What are the costs? What are the costs of the cancelled surgery? How many people have died?
00:16:51.300Because hundreds of thousands of surgeries all across Canada, including British Columbia, have been
00:16:56.180cancelled. And three months later, not a single response to any of these questions. And so the
00:17:02.820politicians are assuming benefits and they're ignoring harms.
00:17:06.420You know, I know exactly what you're talking about. I bumped into a doctor the other day
00:17:12.140who said that Toronto's leading cancer care clinic says that their backlog will take them five to eight
00:17:19.140years to catch up. I said five to eight months? No, he said five to eight years. It's just incredible.
00:17:25.960Of course, we all know from other economic studies that unemployment is directly tied to suicide and
00:17:31.500things of that sort. I think that in places like B.C. that mercifully had a lower death toll on the
00:17:37.820virus. I think we've probably exceeded that and certainly in other jurisdictions too. So you've
00:17:42.700produced this charter analysis. Are you doing any litigation in support of it or is this just trying
00:17:48.520to impact the public discussion? Well, we will be filing court challenges in future if the politicians
00:17:57.140don't come clean and do what they're supposed to do under the charter, which is to provide evidence
00:18:02.360for the claim that the lockdowns have saved thousands of lives. You hear it repeated like a
00:18:09.120mantra over and over and over again, just the same way they talk about evidence-based public policy.
00:18:13.840They talk about science and they talk about the lockdowns have saved thousands of lives. Well,
00:18:19.240I'd like to see the evidence for that because making an assertion is not evidence.
00:18:23.460And on the harm side, the charter allows governments to violate our fundamental freedoms to move and
00:18:32.940travel, associate, assemble, worship, provided that they demonstrably justify these measures
00:18:39.620as reasonable in a free and democratic society. Now, there's complicated tests that you're aware of,
00:18:46.720the Oaks test with rational connection and minimal impairment, and it's a very complicated test.
00:18:53.460But the gist of it is that the governments need to demonstrate that any law, policy, regulation,
00:18:59.700health order that violates a fundamental charter freedom, like our freedoms to move, assemble,
00:19:04.600associate, travel, worship, any law that violates charter freedom needs to be demonstrably justified
00:19:13.540as bringing about more good than harm. And politicians in every jurisdiction have failed miserably
00:19:21.460and continue to fail in actually demonstrating that the lockdown has caused more good than harm,
00:19:28.380which is what they need to demonstrate in order for those measures to be valid.
00:19:33.040You know, as you may know, I published a book about some of these matters,
00:19:37.540and I looked at the original modeling that Justin Trudeau relied on,
00:19:42.580and there were different scenarios in his model. The best case scenario was 50,000 deaths. The worst case scenario was 350,000 deaths.
00:19:55.340I mean, 350,000 deaths is a stunning large number. That truly would be scary.
00:20:01.660But it turned out that the actual number was around 9,000. And even that is misleading because 80% of those were seniors in particular seniors' homes.
00:20:15.200So it's not even just if you were over the age of 80. Even that didn't mean you were doomed.
00:20:20.960It was particular group settings, close settings where hygiene wasn't in place.
00:20:28.160So, first of all, I think there was a single person under age 20 in the whole country who passed away,
00:20:35.920and that person had a terminal case to begin with. I mean, province by province,
00:20:41.820the number of people under 50 who have passed away from this is single digits.
00:20:47.700And to know that we've shut down our schools, our jobs, because a handful of people, typically, average age, 83, passed away.
00:21:01.100And I'm not saying I'm happy that the average age is that high.
00:21:03.840But now that we know it's that high, we can focus our care on them.
00:21:07.120We don't need to shut down everything else.
00:21:09.280We can focus all our protection and care on the people at risk and let the rest of us go back to normal life.
00:21:14.980I don't know. I find it appalling that no one's willing to talk about this.
00:21:45.340Jason Kenney said that as many as 32,000 Albertans could die in a province with just over 4 million people.
00:21:54.72032,000 deaths is the fear-mongering that Jason Kenney engaged in.
00:21:59.480And now the actual number of deaths is approximately 160, with the average age of death being in the low 80s.
00:22:07.120And, you know, youngest person to have passed away was 27 years old, and that was someone with other pre-existing serious health conditions.
00:22:16.520So it's just disgusting how this fear-mongering is still persistent.
00:22:23.040You know, the lockdown could have been justified for a week or two or maybe even three or four weeks if the goal was truly to flatten the curve.
00:22:29.720It could have been justifiable in March or April.
00:22:33.020But to prolong this into July and to throw people into unemployment and poverty and despair and suicide and to destroy the prosperity that we need to actually pay for health care
00:22:45.900and to delay treatments for cancer patients, cancer diagnosis, cancer treatment being delayed, it is unconscionable for any province to be continuing with this lockdown now that we're into July.
00:24:53.960Justin Trudeau bought $2 billion worth of masks at super-inflicted prices.
00:24:59.260He's got to have us use them or he'll look like an even bigger dope for buying a bunch of masks that expensively.
00:25:05.340It's, I just, you know, I just don't know.
00:25:12.040It's very bad public policy, I can tell you that.
00:25:14.460And I can tell you that under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even something like mandatory mask wearing,
00:25:19.820if somebody gets a ticket for that and challenges the ticket in court, the onus would be on the government to show that this obvious restriction on our liberty and autonomy is necessary and is reasonable.
00:25:37.740And I think the government, you know, would have a hard time coming up with persuasive evidence.
00:25:42.440Now that we have this data on who is impacted by it, if you're not over 70 and if you don't have a serious pre-existing health condition,
00:25:52.840which, by the way, if you do, then there's all kinds of things that threaten you, not just COVID.
00:25:57.140But if you don't have the pre-existing health condition and if you're under 70,
00:26:00.640you're in greater risk of dying simply by getting into your car and driving to the grocery store or driving to work or driving anywhere.
00:26:09.200So why we have this restriction on freedom when the stats that are in, when you look at the data,
00:26:15.160it's very clear that this is not this unusually deadly killer that the fear-mongering politicians made it out to be back in March.
00:26:22.620Yeah. You know, we've shown on the show before the number of Canadians who die by driving into a moose on the highway.
00:26:30.120And I know that sounds really funny. It's not funny, especially in Newfoundland where there's so many,
00:26:34.960there's over 100,000 moose there and they just meander onto the road and you're driving fast at night.
00:26:39.880It's not funny at all. But if you are under 70, you have a higher likelihood of being killed in Canada.
00:26:47.160Let's say under 60, you have a higher likelihood of driving into a large animal and dying that way.
00:26:53.940And I'm not making light of it. I'm sort of doing the opposite.
00:26:56.620I'm saying it's so unlikely that you'll be harmed.