Author: Kim Kalliber

Team N Tense Speeding in to the 2014 Competition Season

teamntense-webBy Kim Fleischmann

The start of a new season for Team N Tense, Coached by Kim Fleischmann skating for Marysville Skate Inn began in Puyallup, WA the weekend of November 15-17. Where the inline speed skaters ages 6-69 years of age raced their season opener. The skaters were ready to begin the season with practices starting in September training 3+ days a week. Team N Tense received placements in the following divisions.

Primary Boys  Ben Juracich 1st Place, Elementary Boys Ivan Spencer 6th Place, Freshman Girls Nikita Fleischmann 5th Place, Freshman Boys Nashone White Bear 1st Place, Sophomore Women Rachel Killstrom 6th Place, Sophomore Men Torin Davenport 2nd Place, Senior Men Jerimiah Lotan 3rd Place, Veteran Men Eric Fleischmann 3rd Place, Esquire Men Fred Brevic 1st Place. Elementary2 Boy Relay Ivan Spencer-Isaac Juracich 4th Place, Sophomore 2 Man Relay Nashone White Bear- Torin Davenport 4th place, Veteran 2 man relay Eric Fleischmann- Fred Brevic 2nd Place.

Also competing in the meet was Juvenile Boy Isaac Juracich, Elementary Girls Abby Varn. Great job Team N Tense. The next competition will be held in Auburn, WA Jan 18-20.

Fryberg honored for service on School Board

Wendy Fryberg during her last Marysville School Board meeting as Director District 4.— image credit: Kirk Boxleitner
Wendy Fryberg during her last Marysville School Board meeting as Director District 4.
— image credit: Kirk Boxleitner

KIRK BOXLEITNER,  Marysville Globe Reporter

MARYSVILLE — Wendy Fryberg began serving on the Marysville School District Board of Directors in 2010, after being appointed to the Director District 4 position in the wake of Michael Kundu’s resignation, and she retained that seat in 2011, after running unopposed, but when that term expired this year, she chose not to run for re-election.

As such, the Marysville School Board was joined by members of the Marysville School District, as well as the surrounding Marysville and Tulalip communities, in honoring Fryberg’s service to the school district during the Board’s regular session meeting on Monday, Nov. 18.

Marysville School Board President Chris Nation called a recess during the meeting to conduct a brief celebration in tribute to Fryberg, during which he and his fellow Board members were effusive in expressing their praise and appreciation to Fryberg, whose departure also leaves vacant the Board’s vice president position.

“Wendy brought instrumental leadership to this board,” said Nation, who also serves in the Director District 1 position. “I will always embrace that.”

“Wendy has been a heart behind the Board — a gentle, willing person with an iron heart to serve our children,” said Dr. Becky Berg, superintendent of the Marysville School District. “She will be missed.”

“I have always been impressed with how Wendy and the other Board members care about the children — all children,” said Pete Lundberg, who serves in the Director District 3 position. “Wendy is very thoughtful and a good decision-maker.”

Tom Albright, the Board’s Legislative Representative who serves in the Director District 5 position, credited Fryberg with helping the Marysville School District Board of Directors receive the title of Board of the Year from the Washington State School Directors Association in 2012.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure to work and sit beside Wendy for three years,” Albright said. “I appreciate her smile and her hard work on behalf of all students.”

The meeting’s attendees from the public included Mel Sheldon Jr., chair of the Tulalip Tribes, as well as Sheryl Fryberg and Norma Razote — the general manager and deputy manager of the Tribes, respectively — and each one had plaudits and insights of their own to share about Wendy Fryberg’s service on the Marysville School Board.

“Thank you, Wendy, for stepping up to the plate, addressing the challenges and serving on the School Board for every child,” Sheldon said. “You have made us all proud, along with our community. Your work will serve our next generation. We raise our hands up to you.”

“I am so proud of Wendy and her sheer determination,” Sheryl Fryberg said. “She has grown tremendously through her work on the School Board. From the budget to academics, she took it all to heart. We are very proud of her, and happy to have her come back to our family gatherings. I also lift my hands to Wendy, and to all of the School Board members, for the important work that they do.”

“Wendy has been a great support for me this past year,” Razote said. “She has evolved so much, and as the executive director in adult services for the Tulalip Tribes, I have counted on her so much. I’ve heard so many great things about her work on the School Board.”

Following some coffee and cake, Wendy Fryberg thanked everyone for their comments.

“This has been a great three years,” Fryberg said. “I have learned a lot. I want to thank Don Hatch Jr. for strongly encouraging me to follow in his footsteps and serve on the School Board. This is a really profound team that we have. It’s been a strong team. I appreciate what I’ve learned about the educational system as a Board director, and I’m thankful that my children and everyone’s children are well taken care of in the Marysville School District. I really appreciate this recognition.”

Quinault Nation Receives Grant for Pellet Manufacturing Plant

Source: Water 4 Fish

TAHOLAH, WA (11/24/13)– The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) has received a $63,231 US Department of Agriculture Rural Business Opportunity Grant to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of a tribal pellet manufacturing plant on the tribe’s reservation, according to Fawn Sharp, QIN President.

The envisioned pellet mill is expected to consume logging slash blended with higher grade fiber and/or alternative bio-crop fiber such as Arundo Donax (Nile Fiber), to produce industrial quality pellets that eliminate the need for annual logging slash burns, according to Sharp. “We also anticipate creating new jobs as this Tribal Enterprise is developed. New jobs would include facility operations and maintenance, biomass harvesting, biomass sorting, mechanical equipment operators, truck drivers, and administrative support,” she said. “We anticipate as many as 36 new jobs from this project.”

Upon completion the study will bring the Quinault Indian Nation one step closer to a sustainable biomass for heat system that not only provides heat to essential tribal facilities but will also begin a new technology on the Reservation.

The Quinault Nation has been investigating the use of forest biomass material generated from QIN forest management practices as fuel for heating new or existing tribal facilities for years. The existing Tribal facilities being considered for retrofit in support of a biomass for heat facility include the Tribal Health Clinic, Department of Natural Resources, the Executive Office complex and the Administration complex.

To officially get this project off and running, QIN partnered with Columbia-Pacific Resource Conservation & Economic Development District (ColPac) to apply for grants from the USDA Rural Business Opportunity Grant Program and the US Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Grant Program. The successful grant application was done in support of a biomass feasibility study on the Quinault Reservation. The feasibility study, successfully completed in January of 2012, determined QIN generates more than sufficient biomass quantities to sustain a low pressure boiler system using wood chips or pellets (created from forest slash) as a green fuel source to produce low cost wood heat.

Due to the project’s focus on biomass as a sustainable renewable energy resource, a diverse team of partners and the potential for new Tribal jobs in support of biomass for heat technology, the project was designated as one of seven national USDA Great Regions Projects by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in 2010.

“Currently our project is in the final engineering and design phase for a QIN Biomass for Heat Facility,” said Sharp.  “In support of this phase QIN applied for and was awarded a 2012 US Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Program Grant in the amount of $205,000,” she said.

Engineering and design of the QIN Biomass for Heat Facility is being accomplished by Richmond Engineering and includes the following tasks: Abbreviated Master Plant Site Selection, Schematic Design, Design Development, and Final Design/Bid Preparation. The QIN Biomass for Heat Facility is being engineered and designed as a low pressure hot water biomass heating facility.

The initial Biomass Feasibility Study concluded that 400 bone dry tons (BDT) per year of biomass fuel, in chip or pellet form, would be required to generate the sufficient amount of heat for QIN’s existing buildings. Timber harvests and forest management create 32,000 BDT of biomass-slash annually. The QIN reservation falls within the lush temperate rainforest and is highly productive making this biomass project highly viable as well as sustainable.

“Air quality, wildlife habitat, and forest resources will benefit from this project. Also QIN will save $78,000-$126,000 per year in utility bills from converting our current electric heat to wood heat. When constructed our Biomass for Heat Facility will help QIN become more energy independent. It will also help us become more self-reliant as we create local jobs,” she said.

“This is the type of project that creates jobs, on and off the reservation. It promotes energy independence and supports sustainability and sovereignty,” said Sharp . “It’s exactly what we’re looking for at Quinault,” she said.

Rising air pollution prompts region-wide burn bans

Source:Puget Sound Clean Air Agency
Pierce County: Stage 2
King & Snohomish counties: Stage 1
 
 
SEATTLE, Wash. – To protect public health from worsening air pollution, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is issuing a Stage 1 burn ban for King and Snohomish counties, effective at 2:00 p.m. November 24, 2013.
 
A Stage 2 burn ban remains in effect for Pierce County.
 
These bans remain in effect until further notice.
 
Last night fine particle pollution levels spiked in many areas throughout the Puget Sound region, especially in neighborhoods where wood-burning is common.
 
 
During a Stage 1 burn ban:
 
  • No burning is allowed in fireplaces or uncertified wood stoves. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled. The only exception is if a wood stove is a home’s only adequate source of heat.
  • No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
  • Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.
It is OK to use natural gas, propane, pellet and EPA-certified wood stoves or inserts during a Stage 1 burn ban.
 
During a Stage 2 burn ban:
 
  • No burning is allowed in ANY wood-burning fireplaces, wood stoves or fireplace inserts (certified or uncertified) or pellet stoves. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled. The only exception is if a wood stove is a home’s only adequate source of heat.
  • No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
  • Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.
It is OK to use natural gas and propane stoves or inserts during a Stage 2 burn ban.
 
The Washington State Department of Health recommends that people who are sensitive to air pollution limit time spent outdoors, especially when exercising. Air pollution can trigger asthma attacks, cause difficulty breathing, and make lung and heart problems worse. Air pollution is especially harmful to people with lung and heart problems, people with diabetes, children, and older adults (over age 65).
 
For more information:
 
 

Upcoming holiday events at Tulalip Cabela’s

Taste of Cabela’s, Saturday and Sunday, November 30th – December 1st, 11 AM

Taste of Cabela’s is the perfect chance to taste all of our holiday treats and unique foodie gifts for the holiday season.  Stop by the Home and Cabin Department to taste a variety of dip, soups and our famous fudge.  The Eagles Nest Deli will be sampling Elk, Boar and Bison meats and other goodies sure to peak your interest.  Our Camping department will be sampling a wide variety of tasty marinades and spices along with other treats that Cabela’s has to offer.

Don’t miss this day of munching on delicious food and kicking off the holiday season in Cabela’s style.

 

Pictures with Santa, Saturday-Sunday, December 7-8 11:00am-6pm, by the Fishing Department

Santa and his elves will be visiting our store! Come for a chance to whisper your Christmas wish lists and to take a commemorative photograph of the occasion. We’ll send you home with a free Cabela’s keepsake frame and photograph with Santa.

Native American travels across U.S. photographing citizens of tribal nations

Courtesy Matika WilburJenni Parker, right, and granddaughter Sharlyse Parker of the Northern Cheyenne tribe pose in Lame Deer, Mont., in August.
Courtesy Matika Wilbur
Jenni Parker, right, and granddaughter Sharlyse Parker of the Northern Cheyenne tribe pose in Lame Deer, Mont., in August.

By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News

She sleeps on couches, dines with strangers and lives out of her car. Still, Matika Wilbur does it for the art and for the people.

Wilbur is Native American. Invariably strapped to her arm is a camera, and other than a few provisions and clothing, she owns little else. Last year she sold everything in her Seattle apartment, packed a few essentials into her car and then hit the road.

Since then, she’s been embarking on her most recent project, “Project 562.”

The plan is to photograph citizens of each federally recognized tribe, Wilbur said. Sometimes she’ll journey to an isolated reservation, other times she’ll meet some of the 70 percent of Native Americans living in urban settings. Yet she hopes that when her project is complete it will serve to educate the nation and “shift the collective conscious” toward recognizing its indigenous communities.

To date, Wilbur has photographed citizens of 159 tribes.

In 2010, when Wilbur first conceptualized the campaign, there were 562 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., hence the name. Since then, the U.S. government has added four more nations to the list.

Courtesy Matika WilburNative American activist and poet John Trudell, left, and Son Coup of the Santee Sioux Nation pose for a photo in San Francisco, Calif., in July. 

 

The project all began three years ago when Wilbur photographed her elders from both of her tribes, the Swinomish and Tulalip. She soon decided it was not enough to photograph only her people. After raising $35,000 through Kickstarter.com, an online funding platform, she had enough to realize her project and zip across the country capturing the faces of this nation’s first peoples.

Wilbur said her project is aimed toward debunking the bevy of erroneous stereotypes surrounding Native American culture and society and to reiterate the continual presence of Native Americans.

“We are still here,” she said. “We remain.”

One of those stereotypes is the image of Indians clad in feathers, nearly naked running across the prairie, whooping it up like what’s oft portrayed in western cinema. Also the caricature image of Indians as mascots.

With that in mind, Wilbur said the project is meant to drive conversations about the ubiquitous appropriation of Native American culture and to discuss how U.S. citizens can evolve beyond the co-opting of indigenous images and traditions.

“I hope to educate these audiences that it’s not OK to dress up like an Indian on Halloween,” she said. “I’m not a Halloween costume. I hope to encourage a new conversation of sharing and to help us move beyond the stereotypes.”

Wilbur added that she hopes her photos — her craft — will display the “beauty of (Native) people and to introduce some of our leaders to a massive audience.”

Wilbur, 29, operates on a modest budget and relies heavily on the “generosity and kindness” of the people she meets when travelling throughout Indian country. Many of her photo subjects will host her overnight and provide her with meals.

Courtesy Matika WilburAnna Cook of the Swinomish and Hualapai tribes poses for a photo in Swinomish, Wash., earlier this month. 

 

“I come in a good way. I bring gifts. I interact with their children well. I behave myself. I walk the red road,” she said. “People believe in my project because they, too, have been affected by the stereotypical image and they want to see it change.”

In between shoots, or maybe over dinner, Wilbur will tape record her subjects as they impart their wisdom and life stories. She plans to transfer the files to an application, which will coincide the corresponding photos in a future exhibition.

In the last year, Wilbur has slept in her two-seater Honda only once or twice but, following a new fundraiser in January, she hopes to get a van to sleep in on those long nights out on the open road.

Wilbur said that the fact that there are newly recognized tribes is indicative of the progress Native Americans are making today and that she plans to photograph the four tribes as well as various others who haven’t been recognized by the federal government.

Currently, Native Americans make up 1.6 percent of the entire U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.

On Oct. 31, President Barack Obama proclaimed November 2013 as Native American Heritage Month and designated Nov. 29, 2013 as Native American Heritage Day.

Wilbur’s previous work has been showcased across the U.S. and internationally at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada and the Fine Arts Museum of Nantes in France.

In May 2014, the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington will host an exhibition of Wilbur’s collection of photos. In the meantime, she says she’ll continue her project and “let it flow as the spirit moves it.”

Chickasaw Nation receives Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Award

Source: Chickasaw Nation

The Chickasaw Nation received top honors at the Keep Oklahoma Beautiful (KOB) awards ceremony Nov. 19 in Oklahoma City at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The tribe received an Environmental Excellence Award in the tribal government category for partnerships with Chickasha, Ardmore and Ada for disposing of household hazardous waste.

“The Chickasaw Nation was selected as a finalist because of the hard work and dedication of the Environmental Services Department and continued support from administration,” said John Ellis, executive officer of construction and support services.

“This project was our contribution in keeping our communities clean and safe from environmental hazards which includes a partnership with local communities.  Environmental Services is a relatively small department and to be recognized by Keep Oklahoma Beautiful is an honor,” he added.

During the ceremony, KOB honored finalists and announced the winners of the Environmental Excellence Competition. More than 500 guests attended this sold-out event.

KOB shows appreciation of the work of numerous groups and individuals. From elementary-aged children to government programs, the awards banquet was a celebration of excellence happening all over the state in every capacity.

Also presented at the ceremony were winners of five Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Board of Directors awards. Individual recipients included Gov. Mary Fallin, Norma Lynne Paschall, Ardmore Beautification Council, and Buzz McDonald, representing Warren Caterpillar.

Paschall received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her many years of work with the Ardmore Beautification Council. Before her retirement earlier this year, she was instrumental in the success of the household hazardous waste collection held in Ardmore in partnership with the Chickasaw Nation.

“It was wonderful working with the Chickasaw Nation,” Paschall said. “(It is) so efficient and it was impressive how many people came out and supported the collection program. It was the first household hazardous waste event in Ardmore and we hope it will be held again.”

Two organizations received Board of Directors awards as well. Winners included Serve Moore, an organization made up of local churches and community groups combining efforts to assist residents impacted by the May tornadoes, and the Apache Corporation for helping Tulsa area non-profits convert vehicles to compressed natural gas.

 

About Keep Oklahoma Beautiful

According to web based Linkedin, Keep Oklahoma Beautiful is a statewide non-profit located in Oklahoma City. Its mission is to encourage, facilitate and recognize efforts to improve Oklahoma’s aesthetic, environmental and sustainable quality of life. Founded in 1965, KOB has transformed throughout the years, changing with the times while always working to achieve its mission.

The culmination of each year’s work is the annual statewide awards competition, leading to the annual awards recognition banquet. Well attended and greatly anticipated, the late autumn event recognizes the best of the environmental best in Oklahoma.

As a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, KOB organizes the annual Great American Cleanup in Oklahoma. KOB provides materials and tools for communities and volunteers. Startup cash grants are available for qualifying KOB network organizations.

 

‘Nava-Hos’ Frat Party Sparks Outrage

source: facebook.com/CaliforniaPolytechnic
source: facebook.com/CaliforniaPolytechnic

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

An off-campus fraternity party at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo has drawn sharp criticism for its theme of “Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos.”

According to Mustang News, Cal-Poly’s student newspaper, the fraternity alleged to have been responsible for the event is Phi Sigma Kappa. Neighbors reported 17 to 100 guests, many of them young women dressed as sexualized Indian maidens. When Natives on the Cal-Poly faculty got wind of the incident, they brought it to the student affairs office.

The party will be discussed at a forum today, November 22, at Cal-Poly’s Chumash Auditorium.

Dr. Jennifer Rose Denetdale, Navajo, is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and serves on the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission. Contacted by ICTMN, she released the following statement:

The theme “Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos” for a frat-sorority party by students at Cal Poly directly references Navajos, whose name for themselves is Diné, and parodies U.S.-Navajo colonial relations. In 1863, the Indian fighter Kit Carson received orders from James H. Carleton, governor and commander of New Mexico Territory, to destroy the Navajo people.  Kit Carson’s scorch and burn campaign against the Navajo people literally left the Navajo homeland burning as thousands of Navajo refugees, who were reduced to starvation and poverty, were herded into American forts and then forced to march to the Bosque Redondo reservation at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.  For four years over eight thousand Navajo prisoners of the U.S. lived under genocidal conditions. Many did not survive. The Navajo prisoners lived in ditches in the ground and had little material means to ward off the blistering winters of the plains or the scorching heat of the summers.  They were given inedible rations that were essentially starvation diets; many died from bouts of diseases and just sheer loneliness and broken hearts.  In addition to constantly being on guard for slave raiders who stole the women and children, the Navajo women and girls were subjected to sexual assaults and rapes by both the American soldiers and the slave raiders.  Gerald Thompson, author of The Army and the Navajo, indicates that the Indian agent at the Bosque Redondo dutifully reported that only two newborns had survived the first winter at the prison camp in 1863.

To invoke “Colonial Bros,” then, is to refer to one of the most darkest moments in  American history and certainly for the Navajo people, it is a reference to one of the most brutal, humiliating, and devastating experiences  under American colonialism. To refer to the scantily clad women who came as “Nava-Hos” is to not only diminish the Navajo people as whole, because the term connotes “whore” and “prostitute” and suggests that Navajo women were sexually available to the white soldiers; it says that  it is not possible to rape or sexually assault Navajo women, because they are inherently rapable.  “Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos” is also a slander on Navajo women who have survived rape and sexual assault that was a part of conquest. 

Native peoples, and in this particular case, the Diné, are constantly subjected to racism, discrimination and hate every day, and yet these racist and hateful antics of Cal-Poly students are condoned by the University.  Until we all speak up and condemn such language and behavior and hold the culprits responsible, there will be no justice.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/22/outrage-over-nava-hos-frat-party-cal-poly-san-luis-obispo-152384

Richie Incognito, Redskins and Racism in the NFL

By Gyasi Ross, Huffington Post Blog

“Once upon a time, a woman was picking up firewood. She came upon a poisonous snake frozen in the snow. She took the snake home and nursed it back to health. One day the snake bit her on the cheek. As she lay dying, she asked the snake, “Why have you done this to me?” And the snake answered, “Look, bitch, you knew I was a snake.” -Russell Means, Natural Born Killers

Irritatingly, the “Richie Incongito Is a Bully” and the “Richie Incognito Said the Word ‘Nigger'” storyline has been dominating the ESPN Sportscenter episodes recently. Just as my Seahawks get good enough to command serious national attention, some idiot who is considered an “honorary black man” by many of his fellow Miami Dolphins teammates simultaneously has 1) Shannon Sharpe crying like an infant; 2) white liberals judging this white man as if he were the first and only white man that has ever said this word; and 3) black folks upset.

I’m just mad that they’re not talking about the Seahawks. They are that good, y’all.

But since we’re on the topic, let me explain something — EVERY single person that is crucifying, judging or distancing themselves from Richie Incognito is a freakin’ hypocrite. Shannon Sharpe, with your self-righteous boo-hooing, you are a freakin’ hypocrite. In fact, every single NFL fan that acts like Richie Incognito saying the word “nigger” and bullying a teammate is the worst assault on polite society since Chad Ochocinco, you need to quit lying to yourselves.

To paraphrase the great Russell Means in the great Oliver Stone flick, Natural Born Killers, “Bitch, you knew Richie Incognito was a snake.”

“Bullying” is to football what “football” is to football.

First, let’s address these stupid “bullying” allegations. OK, news flash guys, football is bullying; let’s not romanticize the game and pretend that sportsmanship is a vital part of the game. In fact, that IS the game — to be the better bully than the other guy. From Dick Butkus (Hall of Fame, eye gouger) to Bill Romanowski (future Hall of Famer, spits in his teammates face, kicks opponents) to Jack Tatum (would have been Hall of Famer if he didn’t paralyze a player in a preseason game, kicked opponents) — DIRTY, bullying players have been CELEBRATED and coveted on NFL teams. Look at Ndamukong Suh — he’s as dirty as George W. Bush’s drug test in college, but because of his talent level, teams will always find a way to keep him on a team.

Incognito’s (and every other NFL player’s) job is to be a bully. The NFL is about bullying; for the NFL or anybody associated with the NFL to feign shock at Incognito for being a bully, you’re full of feces. Like Natural Born Killers, you’re blaming for being a snake in a snakepit.

How to address that? Stop rewarding snake-ism; change the snakepit. Which leads to the next point:

Racial Slurs Are Part of Everyday Culture

Richie Incognito, a white man, said the word “nigger.” That’s bad. Shannon Sharpe gave an impassioned, emotive performance about why the notion of Richie Incognito, a white man, saying the word “nigger” was so offensive. He said:

“[Y]ou allow this, in an open locker room to take place, is unacceptable. I’m so disappointed. I just hope that someone was misquoted. I hope I’m wrong and they didn’t allow Incognito to say this racially charged word in a locker room and go unchecked. I’m embarrassed. If he said that to Jonathan Martin, he didn’t only say it to him, he’s talking to you too. Because if you’re black, you know what that word means.”

Yet last year, the Washington Redskins brought in Shannon Sharpe to give a motivational talk to the Redskins players. That’s cool, although the strategy hasn’t seemed to really work that well on the field for the Redskins. Still, it’s odd that neither Shannon Sharpe, or really any of the NFL folks that decry Incognito’s racial slurs, have bothered to point that Sharpe and every other NFL announcer speaks a racial slur every single week — Redskins.

So the argument goes, Richie Incognito saying (and texting) the word “nigger” shouldn’t bother Sharpe. After all, Richie Incognito, according to teammates, was an “honorary black man.” That gave him permission to use the word as he saw fit, or that’s the way he saw it. Obviously these black men in the Miami Dolphins locker room weren’t offended by his use, and so that made it OK, right?

No? Of course not; it’s never OK for a person who isn’t black to use the word “nigger.”

But we also must concede that in the NFL, folks are conditioned to see that sort of behavior as OK. See, Shannon Sharpe and other black NFL announcers don’t seem to get it; they perpetuate this snakepit/racist culture that allows epithets to be used and then excused. The roots of the NFL, just like the roots of this very nation, are racist and firmly entrenched in overt and covert racism. That isn’t Shannon Sharpe’s (or other black players/coaches/announcers associated with the NFL) fault. YET, Shannon Sharpe, and all other black NFL announcers and players and coaches who allows and abets and doesn’t question the use of racial slurs other than “nigger” co-signs the very environment that allows Richie Incognito and Riley Cooper and whoever else to use that ugly word so flippantly.

Shannon Sharpe and Michael Strahan and James Brown and ever NFL player/coach/announcer who takes exception to non-black players using the word “nigger” should be disgusted and refuse to address the Washington Redskins — a racial epithet — as the “Washington Redskins” because that is the cornerstone of the racist culture that permeates the NFL. Shannon Sharpe, if he wants his outrage to be taken seriously, must not take the blood money that the Redskins give him — hush money for racial epithets.

It’s that quiet acquiescence on behalf of black folks associated with the NFL, like Sharpe, that makes rich white powerholders like Daniel Snyder say, “Well damn, they don’t really care about racial equality. They just want to get paid. Come talk to our team named after a racial epithet so you can lose your moral high ground to ever feign racial outrage.”

In conclusion, the culture of the NFL can change in regards to both bullying and the use of racial epithets. Yet, that only happens if folks like Shannon Sharpe give more than lip service to these causes. The NFL will never be able to selectively ban racial epithets — it’s kinda all or nothing when you’re trying to change a culture. So if the purpose is to change that culture, let’s go. Until that time, it’s just a bunch of a hypocritical hot air.

 

Gyasi Ross is a member of the Blackfeet Indian Nation and also comes from the Suquamish Nation. Both are his homelands. He continues to live on the lovely Suquamish Reservation — contrary to Rick Reilly’s assertion, no white liberals influenced his writing of this article. He is a father, an author, a lawyer, and a warrior. He has a new book, How To Say I Love You in Indian, available for pre-order. (Pre-order today!!). His Twitter handle is @BigIndianGyasi. He is a Seahawks fan and sees the Redskins as an inferior team, but readily acknowledges RGIII’s potential greatness (and hopes Alfred Morris does well because Morris is on his fantasy football team).

 

Follow Gyasi Ross on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigIndianGyasi