The Canadian Edmonton Eskimos football team on Tuesday announced its intention to remove the offensive word "eskimos" from its name, following in the footsteps of the Washington Redskins. The board of directors "has taken the decision to no longer use the word eskimos in the name of the team," the team's management said on its website.
The term “eskimos” was notably deemed offensive by indigenous peoples and criticized by one of the team's partners, the insurance company Bélair Direct, who had urged it to change its name, according to local media. “We believe it is important to make this change in response to the findings of our recent research,” Janice Agrios, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said in a statement.
The team from the province of Alberta, in western Canada, launched a study on its name three years ago “to take into account the views of Inuit communities”. The team, which won 14 Gray Cups, the final of the professional championship of the Canadian American Football League, will temporarily be called the “Edmonton Football Team” until a new name is chosen.
Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves in the crosshairs
The information comes after the Washington football team announced last week that it was dropping its name from the Redskins ("Redskins"), some of whom had for many years criticized the racist connotation towards Native Americans. Several other American professional sports teams, like the Kansas City Chiefs, Superbowl winners this year, or the Atlanta Braves (baseball), are also criticized for their Native American name or logo. The wave of debaptizations is therefore perhaps not over in North America.
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- The Redskins drop their name and logo
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