The Daily Show introduces Washington fans to real Native Americans
The Daily Show corespondent Jason Jones tackled the issue of Washington’s NFL team name head-on in a segment designed to look at a name Native Americans said “impairs, disables and disenfranchises our population.”
Talking to both a group of Native Americans and self-identified Washington fans, Jones decided he needed to go to a game to really understand the issue. Then this happened.
Unfortunately the most interesting part of the segment never fully aired. The four Washington fans came face-to-face with the group of Native Americans who were offended by the name. It was supposed to be a debate, but one fan said they felt “ambushed, in danger and defamed,” which led to Comedy Central choosing not to air the audio of the portion.
Instead we were left with a quote.
UPDATE: One of the members of the panel of Native Americans gave a behind-the-scenes account to the Missoula Independent of what it was like on set with The Daily Show. He also described a few rough encounters with Washington fans:
I’m a big dude-6’1”, and a lotta meat on the bones. But a blonde little wisp of a girl completely freaked me out as I waited in line for the bathroom. “Is that shirt supposed to be funny?” she asked motioning to my satirical “Caucasians” T-shirt. And then she said, “I’ll fucking cut you.” Actually, she didn’t scare me so much as the wannabe linebackers standing behind her who looked like they wanted to make good on her threat.
