(Credit: Washington Redskins)

The Washington Post announced Aug. 22 that it will no longer use the name “Redskins,” the hometown National Football League team the Washington Redskins in its editorial pages.

Noting that the editorial board has called for the name to be changed for more than two decades, the newspaper said it’s done using the “offensive” word as part of the editorial content.

“While we wait for the National Football League to catch up with thoughtful opinion and common decency, we have decided that, except when it is essential for clarity or effect, we will no longer use the slur ourselves,” the editorial board wrote.  “That’s the standard we apply to all offensive vocabulary, and the team name unquestionably offends not only many Native Americans but many other Americans, too.”

But, the editorial board noted the decision against using “Redskins” is limited to the editorial pages:

“while we wait for the National Football League to catch up with thoughtful opinion and common decency, we have decided that, except when it is essential for clarity or effect, we will no longer use the slur ourselves. That’s the standard we apply to all offensive vocabulary, and the team name unquestionably offends not only many Native Americans but many other Americans, too.”

The editorial added that the Post doesn’t “believe that fans who are attached to the name have racist feeling or intent, any more than does [team owner Dan] Snyder,” but the word is too “insulting” to publish.

Back in March 1992, the Washington Post published an editorial criticizing the name for being “pretty offensive” and “objectionable.”

“That the usage is common and innocently repeated out of habit makes it no less of an insensitive or insulting remark to those who are on the receiving end. We can do better,” the 1992 editorial board wrote.

The Washington Post editorial board is one of many groups or writers saying they won’t publish the term. In August 2013, Slate, The New Republic and Mother Jones said they won’t use the term in coverage.  The Buffalo News and the Kansas City Star also don’t use the name anymore. Neither does the Seattle Times or the Richmond Free Press,

In 2013, Redskins owner Snyder said “we will never change the name of the team.”

Hat Tip: Mediaite