Racism has long been the most reviled word in the sporting lexicon, ranking alongside only its six-letter companion, doping, in the opprobrium it engenders.

We had hoped by now it would have been eradicated, but if you believe all you glean from the papers or the box, this is far from the case.

Fortunately these days racism rarely touches the Olympic Games, and hasn't since the day the International Olympic Committee finally got the message Tommie Smith and John Carlos were sending out and removed then apartheid South Africa from the Games.

But it certainly prevails in other sporting environments, not least football where there is a scandalous paucity of black coaches and managers.Now we have a lingering controversy over England manager Roy Hodgson's believably innocent but bafflingly naive "monkey" dressing room reference to new boy Andros Townsend.

This was compounded by Football Association chairman Greg Dyke's initial decision to rely on blue blazers rather than a black presence in his commission set up to examine at the future structure of English football; a misjudgement rightly castigated publicly by the admirable Jamaican-born Heather Rabbatts, the only representative on the FA board of both her sex and ethnicity.

Leaving aside whether the subsequent reaction to both matters has been somewhat OTT - it is good that the situation has propelled the new Sports Minister, Helen Grant, herself of mixed race, to have a sharp word in the ear of the FA to ascertain exactly what is going on in that virtually all-white ivory tower at Wembley.

It may be of some comfort, however, that Britain is not alone in having to deal with problems of supposed discrimination.

Washington Redskins fans often dress up to support their NFL team

Across the Atlantic, one of the current major talking points in Washington is not not the recent crippling Government shut-down, President Obama's health care programme or the threat of terrorism or nuclear war - but whether the Washington Redskins should be made to change their name.

Protest groups have campaigned for years for the removal of the word Redskins, now considered a racial slur.

But the NFL team's owner Dan Snyder has dug in his heels, insising:"It will l never change."

He adds: "The fans have no desire whatsoever to see the team name changed solely because their owners succumbed to political pressure. It's also important to remember that there's a long and proud history surrounding the Washington Redskins that goes back generations, a tradition I imagine most fans won't want to give up."

Polls among Native Americans themselves show a fair degree of ambivalence but a growing number of non-Native Americans, including many media outlets covering the NFL, have begun to question the use of the term. Some even refuse to use it, referring to the team simply as Washington.

The debate is ongoing, and there has been a noticeable surge in momentum with President Obama saying last month he would think about changing the name if he owned the Redskins.

Many civil rights, educational, athletic, and academic organisations consider any use of native names and symbols a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping while others believe it honours the achievements and virtues of Native Americans, and that it is not intended in a negative manner.

Former Redskins owner Jack Kent-Cooke has said: "I admire the Redskins name. I think it stands for bravery, courage, and a stalwart spirit and I see no reason why we shouldn't continue to use it."

The Washington Redskins were originally known as the Boston Braves but changed to the Redskins after relocating to the nation's capital in 1937, possibly in recognition of the then–head coach Lone Star Dietz, whom claimed to be part Sioux.

The unofficial mascot of the team is actually an African-American, Zema Williams (aka Chief Zee) who has attended games since 1978 dressed in a "Red Indian" costume complete with feathered war bonnet and tomahawk. It is not unusual for other fans to turn up in similar guise.

Any reference to Indians now taboo in the United States. Hollywood hasn't dared make a proper cowboys and Indians film for decades because of the offence it might cause among the Native American minority.

Even sport can't get in on that traditional confrontation. America has the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Indians but the former is a football team and the latter a baseball franchise.

Like the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Chiefs, many college and professional teams draw on an Indian theme for their names.

However Cleveland have been heavily criticised for their logo, one Chief Wahoo, while the "Tomahawk Chop" hand gesture used by Atlanta Braves' fans has also been under fire for allegedly causing offence.

The "Tomahawk Chop", a regular favourite of Atlanta Braves supporters, is under fire from the PC police

Might this form of political correctness now spread to Britain, where where rugby union's Exeter Chiefs are supported by young fans who adorn themselves in splendidly colourful Indian headdresses. The Devon club's logo is also an Indian chief.

Name changes are not uncommon in America, particularly when franchises change hands, and cities. The Los Angeles Dodgers began as then Brooklyn Grays and this season sees the debut of the New Orleans Pelicans (formerly Hornets) in the NBA.

And in Washington the capital's basketball team switched from the Bullets to the Wizards over the rise of gun violence.

I have long had misgivings about how much longer the New Zealand rugby team will be permitted to label themselves the All-Blacks. And one fears for those football clubs such at Tottenham Hotspur, Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End whose original white shirts earned them the sobriquet of "The Lillywhites".

Back in Britain we sometimes wonder whether our sporting world has gone bonkers by succumbing to so much nonsensical political correctness.

For example, the former England and Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler player had to apologise via the BBC for remarking that players involved in a handbags-at-ten-paces confrontation were "fighting like schoolgirls". It was perceived to be sexist.

Even if he had instead said "they were fighting like kids in a playground" no doubt he would have had the Child Protection Agency on his case.

ITV presenter Adrian Chiles was forced to apologise following a joke he made about Polish builders at the end of an England football international

Equally fatuous was the chiding of ITV football presenter Adrian Chiles' over his "Polish joke" during the channel's coverage of England's 4-1 World Cup victory over Montenegro. Chiles started to look forward to England's clash with Poland which, said Chiles - whose mother is Croatian - was "practically a home game for Poland - 15,000 Poles will be in here, I'm sure."

Pundit Lee Dixon responded by saying: "Hopefully, they're all crying at the end," to which Chiles replied: "I'm trying to get some building work done at the moment, quite seriously. Be careful."

That was deemed to be seriously offensive yet I bet most Polish builders fell about laughing. And why not? The joke, surely was on the charmless, humourless PC police who seem hellbent on imposing their po-faced will on sport.

Sport needs to tackle actual racism and prejudice, rather than waste time on such pettifogging nonsense.

Meantime in the White House a black President takes time out to address the issue of whether the Washington Redskins should be forced to become the Washington Native Americans.

And this in The Home Of The Brave.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for the The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.