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The Washington Orange-Skins [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-07-23

As much as the world moves forward, it seems racism keeps its claws repeatedly dug into our society's flesh like the bear in the 2015 movie The Revenant. In one of the great bits of symbiotic kinship, Donald Trump has linked himself to one of the devout racists of the 20th century—the original owner of the now-defunct monikered ‘Redskins,’ the late George Preston Marshall. When Marshall moved his team to Washington, DC from Boston in 1932, his racism was on display for the country. He was an open racist who proudly called the team he brought to a new city—located geographically south of the Mason-Dixon line, the team of the South. Marshall once traded away black running back Ernie Davis, the overall first-round pick, to the Cleveland Browns ostensibly over a salary dispute. Marshall had also declared he would not have a black player on his team even if the best player available were black. In a bit of racial history, the Stadium in Washington, then known as D.C. Stadium, was on federal land. John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, threatened to evict the team (before occupancy) if they did not integrate.

To avoid the ignominy of being essentially a franchise with no place to play, Marshall agreed to make a deal with the Browns again in 1962 for eventual Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell (one of my heroes as a kid, incidentally). Mitchell reportedly told friends that he would mouth the words to the song "Dixieland" when Marshall would implore him to sing, saying “Sing Bobby Mitchell, sing” at the welcome-home luncheon after training camp ended. Donald Trump, in a desperate move to change the headlines over his embroilment in a pedophile scandal, is using his standby, race, as a distraction. After first attempting to insert himself in the ongoing negotiations for a new stadium deal in Washington by first pledging to help push it through, he turned it into an opportunity to restore a nickname favored by a racist. In fairness, there is a legitimate debate to be had about the efficacy among Native American groups, and fans of the team are torn by nostalgia. I have been a fan of the team since 1966 and have refused to wear anything with the old team name since 2007. Even as a ten-year-old, I was embarrassed by the name. Unfortunately, my moral courage was not the only thing that was immature about me in those days. I rooted to the point of putting the family Bible on the TV on game days. I knew the history of Marshall and his character because my great-grandmother worked for one of his business concerns in D.C. She would tell me stories of his abuse of black employees. Rooting for the legacy of my childhood heroes like Bobby Mitchell and Charley Taylor was something I was never able to shake. With the rebirth of the Washington Football Team, now known as the Commanders, I was finally able to wear my team colors proudly, displaying the team name on my hoodies and T-shirts.

Donald Trump's efforts to use a pejorative anagram, Make Indians Great Again (MIGA), failed to make the media ignore that he is an alleged pedophile. He has now gone full Marshall, attacking anyone with black skin. He featured a vicious and satirical video of former President Barack Obama being handcuffed in the Oval Office and sitting in an orange jumpsuit in a cell. He then released the FBI files of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., despite the objections of his family and heirs. When that failed, he upped the ante on Obama, endangering his life by accusing him of treason. Trump knows that attacking revered black people is raw meat for his base. Maybe this time, what is left in the dark recesses of the MAGA morality makes them say maybe even racism is less critical than raping children. Hey Donald, the Commanders will not call themselves the Orange-Skins even if you ask.

Your Vote is Still Your Voice

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/23/2334709/-The-Washington-Orange-Skins?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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