Opinion: Washington fans tell themselves mascot isn't racist

Why, despite overwhelming evidence, do so many fans refuse to believe that the “R*dskins” team name is a racial slur – that the R-word is to Indians what the N-word is to blacks; a derogatory and highly offensive racist term?

Blacks would riot if the team were named the “N*ggers,” and would never accept the argument that a team named the “J*gaboos” honors their ability to dance (a “jig”). Don Imus was suspended over his mere use of the word “Nappy,” and team names like “Sp*cs,” “Wetb*cks,” “K*kes,” “C*nts,” and “F*ggots would likewise be intolerable.

Yet, despite numerous legal proceedings finding the word to be racist, grossly insulting, and highly offensive and derogatory, assurances of this fact by virtually every major American Indian organization, and clear statements in dictionaries, many fans refuse to accept this simple conclusion.

Perhaps one explanation is simply “cognitive dissonance”: the psychological term applied to the mental strain which can result from trying to simultaneously harbor two competing inconsistent beliefs. To relieve the mental distress from the conflict, sufferers often change one belief – kidding themselves into disbelieving something which is obviously true, and replacing it with a belief which is clearly false.