The N-word and R-word: The NFL’s
Shameful Attempts to Regulate Rhetoric
and Personal/Institutional Conduct
Kelly M. Young, Associate Professor and Director of Forensics
Department of Communication
My interest
2013/2014 as a key moment
• Fritz Pollard Alliance calls on NFL to ban the use of the “N” word
on the playing field.
• 2014 Ferguson, MO protests in response to the shooting death of
Brown
• Congress calls on Washington owner to change the mascot and logo
and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancels the team’s
trademark registration because the name is “disparaging.”
Mixed, Contradictory, and Shameful Response
Why care?
• “Native American mascots are a pervasive, ubiquitous feature of
American culture” (C. Richard King & Charles Springwood, 2001,
2).
• “American Indian mascots are not an Indian issue, they matter to
all of us, for only in coming to terms with mascots can we begin to
come to terms with the legacies of colonization and start to
unravel the racism that dehumanizes and divides all of us” (C.
Richard King, 2014, 139-140)
Effects of Mascots
• Jason Edward Black (2002): mascotting is a “hegemonic strategy of
separating American Indians from their cultural heritage. Once
this severance occurs, nationalism retains control over what
Native American means, how it shall exist, and where is shall
relocate through the rhetoric of the mascot” (609)
• Mascots dehumanizes. Black (2002): “naming and
misrepresentation of Indigenous identity comes to define and, on
an ontological level, inhabit what it means to be Native” (610).
Effects of Mascots
• Robert Jensen (1994): mascots are American fantasies about First
Nation people that do not reflect reality .
• C. Richard King & Charles Springwood (2001): Mascots are an issue
of power – “the conquest of Native America simultaneously
empowered Euro-Americans to appropriate, invent, and otherwise
represent Native Americans and to long for aspects of their
cultures that had been destroyed by conquest” (3)
My argument
• The intransigent attitude displayed by the NFL and Washington
ownership about the R-word is the result of a rhetorical framing
that over-emphasizes:
• Individual rather than institutional acts of racism
• Individual utterances directed at present players rather than systemic uses
of discourse to frame an entire population as socially invisible or
ontologically dead.
Texts
• Fritz Pollard Alliance letter to all former, current, and future NFL players, written
by John Wooten and Harry Carson on November 21, 2013.
• NFL Competition Committee Annual Press Conference on March 26, 2014 to discuss
potential changes to NFL rules regarding the use of racial slurs on the field.
• Washington owner Dan Snyder’s Letter to Fans printed in the Washington Post on
October 9, 2013.
• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s June 5, 2013 letter to Congressman Tom Cole and
Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Co-Chairs of the Congressional Native American
Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Method –Kenneth Burke and Framing
• Frame analysis – used by media effects scholars
• Burke – Language as a “Terministic Screen”
• Selection and Deflection of reality
Method –Naming as a Colonial Frame
• Naming as a Screen:
• “Names order our world and direct our attention” (Mary Stuckey & John
Murphy, 2001, p. 74)
• “[T]he paradoxical constitutive power at the core of the colonial enterprise:
the power to name” (Stuckey & Murphy, 2001, p. 74)
• Paradoxical because as we attempt to reflect the world with our names, we
also inevitably deflect part of it. As Stuckey & Murphy suggest, “Our names
cannot quite define our situations” (2001, p. 74).
Dramatism as Discursive Frames
• Metaphor of Drama defines human communication
• Tragedy
• Inflates importance of people, acts, and events to the point of absolutes (e.g.,
heroes/villains, sacrifice/victimage)
• Often leads to violence and limits reflection and critical understanding of
important public matters.
• Comedy
• Corrective to tragedy
• Humility, reflective, optimistic
• Solve division and hierarchy through identification
Method – Burke’s Pentad
• ACT
• AGENCY
• SCENE
• PURPOSE
• AGENT
Analysis
The terms defined
• Agent - players, fans, officials
• Act – unsportsmanlike conduct
• Agency – racist language
• Scene – the playing field & legacy of fans and key
coaches/players
• Purpose – Preserve the legacy of the NFL
Featured Term - Agent
• Agent controls the other dramatic terms within the four texts:
• The Scene is entirely about individual’s presence on the field and
individual fans
• The Act – unsportsmanlike conduct – is entirely about individual player’s
acts and not institutional actions (e.g., Washington’s use of their
logo/mascot)
• Agency – racist language – only matters when directed at individuals
present on the field
• Purpose – legacy of the NFL – is regulated and controlled by individuals
regulating other individuals. Institutional behavior is ignored.
Examples
• Jeff Fisher – NFL Competition Committee:
“…we agreed that we have an issue on the
field. We agreed that we are going to get it
under control as soon as we possibly
can….We are going to clean the game up on
the field between the players”
Examples
• Wooten & Carson (Fritz Pollard Alliance): “As former
players…who have worked hard in different eras of the
game to leave proud legacies for those who follow us, we
are appalled and extremely disappointed to learn that
the worst and most derogatory word ever spoken in our
country is being used during games as well as casually in
the locker room”
Examples
• Wooten & Carson: “…we cannot condone on any level the
use of the ‘N’ word. We understand the history of the
game and especially the significance of the reintegration of the [NFL] in 1946 when many who opposed
blacks playing in the league used the same racial
epithets from the stands. Men like Kenny Washington,
Woody Strode, Bill Willis, and Marion Motley bravely
withstood the indignity of the ‘N’ word during times
when black men were beaten and even hung….To use it
now is a disgrace”
Examples
• Wooten & Carson: “We are simply asking that you
respect the dignity of your teammates, fellow
players, officials, coaches, fans, and yourselves.”
Examples
• Dan Snyder: “Like so many of you, I was born a
fan of the Washington [team]. I still remember
my first…game….That tradition – the song, the
cheer – it mattered so much to me as a child, and
I know it matters to every other [Washington] fan
in the D.C. area and across the nation. Our past
isn’t just where we came from – it’s who we are.”
Examples
• Snyder: “But we cannot ignore our 81 year history, or the
strong feelings of most of our fans as well as Native
Americans throughout the country. After 81 years, the
team name “Redskins” continues to hold the memories
and meaning of where we came from, who we are, and
who we want to be in the years to come. We are
Redskins Nation and we owe it to our fans and coaches
and players, past and present, to preserve that
heritage.”
Examples
• Roger Goodell: “In our view, a fair and thorough discussion of the
issue must begin with an understanding of the roots of the
Washington franchise and the Redskins name in particular….[T]he
team began as the Boston Braves in 1932, a name that honored
the courage and heritage of Native Americans. The following year,
the name was changed to the Redskins – in part to avoid confusion
with the Boston baseball team of the same name, but also to
honor the team’s then-head coach, William “Lone Star” Dietz.
Neither in intent nor use was the name ever meant to denigrate
Native Americans or offend any group.”
Conclusions
Conclusions
• Dramatic framing that exaggerates the importance of
individuals and their legacy. What its selects or foregrounds:
• Focus is on the presence of players on the field and in the
community and how they are affected by racist slurs.
• Individual utterances directed at players and punishments
of individuals
• Individual’s experiences and memories tied to a mascot
and the exaggerated value of that experience and identity
Conclusions
• What is Deflected?
• Institutional behavior and discourses – not considered a slur because
it’s a legacy for individual fans
• This dramatic emphasis on the Agent overemphasizes the importance
of physical presence on the field (players) or in the stadium (fans),
which renders Native American people as socially invisible at best or
socially dead at worst.
• The colonial appropriation of indigenous values and legacy as the
justification or purpose of using racist discourse.
Conclusions
• What is Deflected?
• Contradiction in the understanding of how language
operates:
• N-word: unredeemable term that causes great
harm
• R-word: redeemable term that can be appropriated
for colonial group identity that is respectful rather
than harmful
Thank you!