You may have heard of the Washington Redskins? Or the Cleveland Indians? But you won’t find them in the NFL or MLB standings anymore.
Due to criticism related to cultural appropriation of Native American heritage, the teams changed their names in recent years to the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians.
Now a US football club in Copenhagen is taking a similar route.
After 20 years of existence, the Copenhagen Tomahawks have decided to change their name as they don’t see it as being appropriate anymore.
The Valby-based club contends that a ‘tomahawk’ is a Native American battle axe and the team doesn’t want to be accused of cultural misappropriation in the future.
“We’ve seen more and more names being criticised in Denmark and the US – names that are no longer contemporary or justified,” Lasse Bach Schrøder-Sevald, the chair of the club, told TV2 Lorry.
“So that prompted us to have the discussion concerning whether we still want the name or it’s a problem that we need to change.”
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Players voiced concern
Some of the players themselves even raised the issue earlier this year.
They thought it was time to at least have a discussion about the name.
What the club will be called in the future is still up in the air. A new name will be unveiled in the new year.
Schrøder-Sevald said that its new name will still have connections to the US, but it just won’t be minority-related.
