The Redsk*ns Were Forced to Admit That Racism Is No Longer Profitable
Black Lives Matter changed everything, and it’s been a long time coming
On Monday, the Washington NFL team’s owner, Dan Snyder, announced that the Redsk*ns name and logo are being retired. While they’ve yet to declare a replacement, which makes me somewhat apprehensive, the fact that Washington will finally stop using a dictionary-defined racial slur as its moniker is worthy of celebration, or at least, a sigh of relief.
To my knowledge, Natives have been demanding that Washington drop the Redsk*ns name for at least 50 years. Snyder himself once said that he was “never” going to change it. As it turns out, “never” means two weeks. Make no mistake, the infamous Redsk*ns name hasn’t fallen because the organization finally heard the pleas of thousands of Natives crying out for justice.
In short, the race-based name and logo are finished because money talks. On July 2, FedEx, the sponsor of the team’s Maryland stadium, formally asked the team to retire the offensive name and logo. Nike and PepsiCo were also asked by investors and shareholders to terminate their relationship with the organization unless the Redsk*ns was relegated to the annals of history. Soon after, the Washington team’s merch was pulled from major chains like…
