Aunt Jemima Is Gone. Can We Finally End All Racist Branding?

Three years ago, the Supreme Court handed an Asian rock band named the Slants an unimaginable win when it proclaimed, in Matal v. Tam, that it was unconstitutional for the law to ban trademarks that were “disparaging.” In celebrating the band’s victory, the lead singer Simon Tam declared the case “a win for all marginalized groups,” asserting: “It can’t be a win for free speech if some people benefit and others don’t.”

Despite his optimism for free speech, Mr. Tam could not have been more wrong about the meaning of his victory. Although the court had ruled in Mr. Tam’s favor, Matal v. Tam’s outcome obliterated the decades-long legal challenge to the Washington Redskins trademark, which was first filed by a group led by the Cheyenne and Muscogee Creek activist and scholar Suzan Shown Harjo and later a team of Native American plaintiffs led by Amanda Blackhorse. Perhaps most telling was the reaction of Dan Snyder, the owner of a certain Washington football team, who — the same day — issued a statement in response to the court’s ruling on the Tam case: “I am THRILLED! Hail to the Redskins.” In response to Matal v. Tam, Ms. Blackhorse defiantly insisted, “It may have killed our case, but it hasn’t killed our movement.”