On Wednesday, George Washington University announced that the school has chosen a new moniker for their sports teams. Instead of the Colonials, which had been their name since 1926, the school’s teams will now be known as the Revolutionaries. Students and faculty considered the name Colonials offensive, so a change was decided upon in June of last year.
While Indian- and Confederate-themed names have been considered offensive to many on the political Left for decades, this might be the first time that a name referencing America’s Founding Fathers has been replaced with a (supposedly) more politically correct one.
“This is an exciting day for the George Washington University Revolutionaries,” said university President Mark S. Wrighton. “I am very grateful for the active engagement of our community throughout the development of the new moniker. This process was truly driven by our students, faculty, staff and alumni, and the result is a moniker that broadly reflects our community—and our distinguished and distinguishable GW spirit.”
A committee of students, faculty, and staff members found that the name “Colonials” no longer represented the university’s values, and decided that “a new moniker would help support unity in our community.”
“Revolutionaries” was picked out of four finalists chosen from more than 8,000 suggestions; “Ambassadors,” “Sentinels,” and “Blue Fog” were the other choices. The name was chosen because Revolutionaries “are not afraid to break boundaries and change the game. The GW Revolutionaries go beyond what’s conventional or expected to focus on shifting mindsets and creating a new future for ourselves and our world,” the school announced.
“Revolutionaries are bold, they embody creativity and passion,” said Professor Monica Ruiz. “Revolutionaries are change-makers, they’re not content with the status quo.”
The choice of “Revolutionaries” was made by current students and faculty. Apparently, alumni favored “Blue Fog.”
But what, exactly, was wrong with the name Colonials, which paid homage to America’s Founding Fathers who broke away from their colonial status during America’s Revolutionary War? Apparently, it was not “inclusive” enough for many.
“It was a term [George Washington] associated with narrow-mindedness, with a certain provincialism,” said history professor Denver Brunsman.
Opposition to the “Colonials” name began in earnest in 2019, when the student body voted to remove it and an “Anything But Colonials Coalition” was created. The next year, that coalition delivered a petition to the university president.
“Colonials were active purveyors of colonialism and were complicit in militarized and racialized violence, oppression, and hierarchy,” the petition declared. “Colonialism has been historically and contemporaneously built upon usurping land, labor, and autonomy from racialized communities through dehumanizing violence and suppression.”
It sounds as if students were most offended that the name “Colonials” sounded a bit like “colonialism.”
The name change is the second major rebranding for a Washington-area institution in the past couple of years. The city’s professional football team, previously known as the “Redskins,” changed their name to the “Commanders” in 2022 after being known as simply the Washington Football Team for two years.
Another rebranding of the Washington professional football team may occur in the near future, as the ownership has been unable to trademark the name the Washington Commanders.
Happily, the school’s mascot, George 1 — a George Washington caricature — will be allowed to stay, for now, at least. With the Left’s pathological hatred of all things American, though, how long will it be until President Washington himself — at one time a slave owner — is deemed unacceptable to “woke” students and faculty?
