The debate over the "Redskins" nickname has never really gone away, despite occasionally lying dormant over a period of time. Now, the editorial policy of a Midwestern newspaper has added another layer of context to an already-complex issue.
Here's how this came about: former Kansas City Star reporter Greg Babb is starting at the Washington Post Monday. A commenter on this write-up noted that reporters at the Star (the newspaper where Ernest Hemingway, Joe Posnanski, and Jason Whitlock previously worked) were prohibited from using the word "Redskins" in their copy.
That trail leads to this piece by the paper's public editor (ombudsman, to use the inside baseball term), Derek Donovan.
I remain unconvinced by every argument I've ever heard that the name is not a racial epithet, plain and simple. And I'll even break my usual rule about commenting on issues outside The Star's journalism to say that I find it inconceivable that the NFL still allows such a patently offensive name and mascot to represent the league in 2012.
I almost always come down on the side of publishing a word when it's the crux of a debate ... But I see no compelling reason for any publisher to reprint an egregiously offensive term as a casual matter of course.
Pretty unamibiguous stuff. Spotter's badge to @chaddukes for this one.