Sports fans are nothing if not passionate. That was evident in reaction to Edmonton Eskimos’ head coach Jason Maas’s contentious fourth-quarter call in Sunday’s West Final. The only thing that may be debated more than that call, is the team’s name itself.
The CFL team name Edmonton Eskimos is under the microscope after the mayors of Winnipeg and Edmonton mused about whether it’s time for a change.
READ MORE: Edmonton mayor calls for ‘conversation’ about Eskimos name change
Issues of race and lexicon can be complicated and sensitive. Global News asked Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization, to help explain the reasons for changing the name.
Part of the issue, he says, is using Indigenous peoples as mascots.
Obed said the word “Eskimo” is a term that was created by others and then applied to the Inuit people.
“And over the past 150 years or so, that term has been used in many ways to marginalize us, it’s been used as a term that is a racial epitaph and a slur,” Obed said.
He said the only place it is now used in public is with the CFL team, asserting that having an ethnicity as a symbol for a team dehumanizes the Inuit people.
This debate is rife with anecdotes — with some members of the Inuit community reported to have said they aren’t offended by the name, or even that they find it flattering. Obed said that’s not the point.
READ MORE: Poll suggests 12% of Albertans believe Edmonton Eskimos’ name is unacceptable
“There’s a huge difference between finding offense to something and racism. And this term is overtly racist in the way it is applied to us as a people. And I do hope over time people can recognize that there are many Inuit that have been hurt by this term,” Obed said.
Obed used the example of Canada’s residential schools — where not all residential school students may have had the same experience, but there has been unity in supporting those who were wronged.
“I hope that in this context, maybe those people that don’t think that there is much wrong with the name can recognize other people have been hurt by it and the larger social effects that this has on its continued use,” Obed said.
READ MORE: Edmonton Eskimos ‘need to have conversation’ about changing name, Premier Rachel Notley says
To Obed, it is also about moving forward as a nation — for all Canadians.
“This isn’t about making people feel bad about cheering for a football team or for the traditions they grew up taking part in. This is about reconciliation, this is about stopping and recognizing that there are people, there are Indigenous people behind this moniker, behind this name, and it’s time we move beyond a country that has Indigenous mascots.”
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