Groan…

WILLIAMSVILLE, NY – The Bee Group Newspapers, publisher of several suburban papers with roughly 45,000 paid subscribers in Western New York, says it will no longer use the word “Redskins” to identify sports teams at any level of competition.

“I’ve never said to anyone, ‘I’m going to interview some redskins for a story,” said the newspaper group’s managing editor David F. Sherman.

According to Sherman, the decision was made after six weeks of staff discussion on the topic.

“It was a corporate decision from the publisher on down, to say we just don’t feel comfortable using this term,” Sherman told WGRZ-TV.

The decision will affect how the paper refers to Lancaster High School teams in particular, which have used the nickname Redskins for 67 years.

“We’ll just refer to them as the Lancaster football team or the Lancaster field hockey team. I know that (nickname) is something that is very much a part of that community and I understand that, but things change…you’re talking about someone’s skin color as their ethnicity. That’s their nickname.”

HT: Merrill