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  • 2017-12-13 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Washington D.C.'s Football Team Change Its Name To 'Redhawks'? (en)
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  • An elaborate series of mock websites published on 13 December 2017 announced what they called a name change for the pro football team in Washington D.C.: According to a statement by the fictional Washington Redhawks: Their website also featured a purported new logo: However, it also linked to a series of mock news stories promoting the move — web sites made up to look like stories from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and the Washington Post. Within hours after publishing the announcement, the Native American advocacy group the Rising Hearts Coalition admitted that it was behind the faux name change in a separate statement. One of the group's members, Cherokee Nation activist Rebecca Nagle, said: After announcing their intention, the coalition added a disclaimer to the original post regarding the name change: When we contacted the actual football team, they pointed us to their own statement: The Redhawks campaign is the latest in a long series of protests calling on the team to change its name. Nagle told us her group employed the faux announcement after every possible tactic — including litigation, petitions, and protests — to exert pressure on the team. She also confirmed that some supporters of the campaign shared the post knowing it was fake in an effort to make it go viral. She said: But some members of Native American communities were critical of the campaign for pushing the fake story; activist and athlete Phillip Espinoza, a member of the Mesa Grande band of Mission Indians, told us: The campaign sent us an email responding to Espinoza's critique, saying that their effort forced the team to respond to the attention it drew. They added: Nagle also noted that during his administration, former President Barack Obama and 50 Senate members all criticized the team over the use of its name, which activist groups have called an anti-Native American slur. However, at least two polls — one conducted in 2004 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a 2016 Washington Post survey — both found that at least 90 percent of Native American respondents did not oppose the team's name. (en)
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