Red Tails instead of Redskins? Reddit thread offers an answer to a perennial question

Is now the time to change the Redskins name?

The Redskins held a press conference today with head coach Ron Rivera and quarterback Dwayne Haskins. Both spoke about race relations in our communities -- a conversation that brings up another issue with the team, the name itself.

WASHINGTON - D.C. sports teams across the spectrum are meeting the moment and stepping up in support of black lives.

And some Reddit users are calling on the Redskins to make a make a change as well.

Taking a cue from an image on the 99designs website, Redditor u/RO16 posits that Washington’s storied football team could seize the moment and replace their controversial nickname with an equally tradition-rich nickname: Red Tails.

Tuskegee Airmen logo. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The post on r/washingtondc has garnered more than 1,500 upvotes and nearly 300 comments.

While many of the commenters offered other alternatives to the Redskins' nickname – which has often been identified as a racist reference to native Americans – few challenged the idea that it should remain the same.

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The Tuskegee Airmen have been a topic of conversation over the past several years.

The Tuskegee Airmen is the nickname of the first African American unit to fly combat airplanes during World War II.

The distinctive coloring on their aircraft led to the nickname “Red Tails.”

The Air Force honored the famed group of airmen with the naming of its new trainer jet.

The 2012 movie “Red Tails” featured a star-studded cast including Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard.

Then, last year, President Donald Trump honored one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen during the State of the Union Address.