Oneida Nation to run radio ads before Redskins game

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Washington RedskinsA month after the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin protested the Redskins name before the team faced the Packers in Lambeau Field, its tribal members will air radio ads in Dallas ahead of this Sunday’s Redskins’ matchup with the Cowboys.


The spots will air Saturday and Sunday on CBS Radio’s KRLD-FM, the Cowboys’ flagship, reports CBS Sports.

Text of the ad:

NARRATOR: At a moment when President Obama and Republican leaders remain deeply divided, this week saw them come to a bipartisan agreement on one thing: It is time for Washington’s NFL team to stop using a racial slur and to finally change its name. Here is what President Obama said of the team’s current name:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: “I’d think about changing it.”

NARRATOR: Senior Republican congressman Tom Cole then joined the president in demanding a change. He told a national television audience:

TOM COLE: “The name is just simply inappropriate, it is offensive to a lot of people.”

RAY HALBRITTER: “Hi, I’m Ray Halbritter of the Oneida Indian Nation. This country may still be politically divided, but as leaders of both parties this week said, we should all be able to agree that racial slurs are unacceptable, and they shouldn’t be used to market this country’s capital city. As Native people who heard this painful slur when we were taken at gunpoint off our lands, we aren’t asking for anything more than basic respect. We don’t deserve to be treated to racial slurs. We deserve to be treated simply as what we are: Americans.”

Halbritter is an Oneida Indian Nation Representative and has spoken about this issue before: “Any other ethnic would not tolerate this kind of language being used about them that’s so denigrating and dehumanizing,” Halbritter told Meet the Press last Sunday, days after President Barack Obama said “I’d think about changing the name.”

“As the first sitting president to speak out against the Washington team name, President Obama’s comments are truly historic,” Halbritter said. “The use of such an offensive term has negative consequences for the Native American community when it comes to issues of self-identity and imagery. We will continue to push our cause because this is about doing right by our children, who are especially impressionable.”

On Wednesday Redskins owner Dan Snyder, in an open letter to Redskins fans, basically said the name is staying.

See the CBS Sports story here