KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the aftermath of the Washington NFL team’s decision to change its name early last week, Dr. Stephanie Fryberg had conflicting emotions — but not because the team’s now-retired nickname, a dictionary-defined racial slur, was going away.
She, like many (but not all) Native Americans, was thrilled about that long overdue change. Fryberg is a professor at the University of Michigan and member of the Tulalip Tribe who has been doing empirical research on the effects of Native American sports imagery on Indigenous people for years. She couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that the team’s motivations for capitulating weren’t exactly pure.