It’s rare when someone in Hollywood takes the “politically incorrect” view on anything.
So it’s not surprising that the most shared comments made by actor Matthew McConaughey in a cover story in GQ magazine are his remarks saying he didn’t think the Washington Redskins should have to change their team’s name or logo.
From the GQ interview:
What interests me is how quickly it got pushed into the social consciousness. We were all fine with it since the 1930s, and all of a sudden we go, ‘No, gotta change it’? It seems like when the first levee breaks, everybody gets on board. I know a lot of Native Americans don’t have a problem with it, but they’re not going to say, ‘No, we really want the name.’ That’s not how they’re going to use their pulpit.
He should have stopped there but he kept talking and made some silly, and in my view, nonsensical comments about how this resembled the debate over gun control:
It’s like my feeling about gun control: I get it. You have the right to have guns. But look, let’s forget that right. Let’s forget the pleasure you get safely on your range, because it’s in the wrong hands in other places.
What? Anyway, he came back to common sense when asked about the Redskin logo: “I love the emblem. I dig it. It gives me a little fire and some oomph. But now that it’s in the court of public opinion, it’s going to change. I wish it wouldn’t, but it will.”
McConaughey shouldn’t give up so easy. Recent polls suggest there is strong support for the team to keep its name. But as I’ve written before on this issue, even if polls showed more people were offended, no one has the right “not to be offended.” We might as well get rid of the First Amendment if we’re going to start banning every term, every word and every team mascot that “offends” somebody.
The biggest problem for the Redskins right now is not their name, but their record. And that record is going to take another hit on Monday night when they play their arch rival, the Dallas Cowboys. McConaughey grew up in Texas yet is a Redskins fan–more nonsensical thinking.
Go Cowboys!
