Tribal leaders throughout Indian Territory have denounced the moniker. Led by the National Congress of American Indians, the Oneida Indian Nation in New York, and others, the activists won a string of high-profile victories over the past three years. President Obama, 50 Democratic U.S. senators, dozens of sports broadcasters and columnists, several newspaper editorial boards (including The Post’s), civil rights and religious leaders called on team owner Daniel Snyder to act.

National Congress of American Indians Executive Director Jacqueline Pata said in a statement Thursday that more than 100 Native American organizations have spoken in opposition to the team’s name.

“It is true some Native people do not find the word offensive,” Pata said. “However, thousands of Native people across the country have voiced their opposition to the name and the historic, disparaging connotations it carries to this day."

This is not something I should have to do. For the last 7 years I’ve been writing this blog we’ve made huge gains in the way the public thinks about Native peoples and Native mascots. It’s been the hard, hard work of a huge community of activists and community members for decades, and I just don’t understand why WaPo felt the need to do this poll. More on this in a minute, but we’ve got psychological studies, tribal council votes, thousands of Native voices, and common decency and respect on our side, yet that was not enough.

...Native mascots have repeatedly been empirically shown to harm the self-esteem of Native American youth. Period.

It does not matter if I’m offended or if your ‘Native American friend’ is not. Racial stereotypes are harmful to our children. Another study demonstrated that Native mascots increase the likelihood of non-Native children to indoctrinate stereotypes of other races. Racism begets racism.

“The act of polling a human rights issue is absurd. It trivializes the reports and experiences of those Native people who’ve been hurt and damaged by Native stereotypes and by the Washington team name. Stereotypes are wrong and demeaning,” said Amanda Blackhorse, lead plaintiff of the lawsuit challenging the Washington team’s trademarks.

Indeed. What other racial slur does America poll? What other racial stereotype requires a poll to determine if it’s dehumanizing? What other group is told they have more important things to worry about, as if Native Americans are somehow incapable of combating racism and poverty at the same time?

When you don’t treat a group of people like living human beings, it affects that group at every level. Racism is a fundamental, invasive issue.

"It should be a no-brainer — but somehow, it’s not.”

Even if the poll was conducted perfectly and even if the results had been completely reversed, The Washington Post did a grave disservice by utterly ignoring studies that clearly demonstrate the harm mascotting causes to Native youth—the most vulnerable population in the country by almost any statistic.

Our young people have a rate of suicide 2.5 times higher than average. According to the American Psychological Association, which has called for the ending of the practice of mascotting, Native youth suffer measurably lower self-esteem after exposure to a Native American mascot.  It also found that Native respondents who claim to be okay with Native mascots actually experience a greater drop in self-esteem. This finding is particularly relevant to the Washington Post poll, which has been widely interpreted as proof that there’s no harm in using the slur for a $2 billion NFL franchise in the nation’s capital.