The unfortunately named Washington Redskins football team has received both criticism and support from fans across the U.S. for its logo which depicts a Native American with red skin. The emblem is undeniably disrespectful and racist for its caricature and bold usage of a racial slur as a team name.
For those who argue its ‘just a logo,’ Frederick Joseph, the black CEO and founder of We Have Stories, a nonprofit geared toward creating equity through projects impacting the world, donned a parody of the Redskins logo on a T-shirt. The shirt features a white man over the tongue-in-cheek and non-racial slur team name The Caucasians.
As anyone with melanin would expect, Joseph’s first outing in the shirt did not go well, and many were disgusted by the shirt but completely missed the point as to how Native Americans may feel the same way.
Joseph detailed his street encounters in a Twitter thread that read:
“The Hypocrisy of Racist Logos:
Last weekend I decided to wear this shirt, I figured it would catch some by surprise but I didn’t expect people to be as trash as they were.
The shirt is a play on the Washington ‘Redskins’ logo to demonstrate how people look wearing apparel with a logo that is blatantly racially charged and disrespectful.
The shirt doesn’t have any rude language or slurs such as ‘crackers’ or ‘honkies’… but that didn’t matter.
I left @SMXProgress after just doing an interview with @XorjeO and it was my first time in public with the shirt on.
A white guy walking by mistook the shirt for an actual team shirt and yelled “Go Skins!” I said ‘nah,’ he then saw my shirt and yelled ‘asshole!’
Next, an older white lady stopped me in the street and said, ‘why would you wear that? It’s disrespectful.’
So I asked her if she would have said the same if I had on the actually team shirt or another team using disrespectful branding.
She said, ‘no, because that’s the logo.’
The third person or rather people was a group of white guys across the street and one pointed at me. I can see from the corner of my eye that two of them were seemingly trying to come across the street and have a word with me.
I wish they would have, but that’s here no there.
As I walked through manhattan, people looked at me and rolled their eyes, pointed, made snide comments, ect.
But I’ve never sen white people do the same when people wearing ‘Redskins’ apparel, which is actually racist versus the word ‘Caucasians’ and a white man logo.
Basically, I was being shamed as a black person for wearing a non-disrespectful shirt with a white person logo on it.
But people wear apparel and jerseys with logos depicting things such as a Native American and call them ‘redskins…’ whew child, the hypocrisy and privilege.
I was fairly surprised by the reactions of people because again, there are so many disrespectful and racist representations of minorities used for brands and they don’t even think twice.
But it goes to show how fickle and hypocritical people can be.
I’d be interested to see more people wear shirts and apparel such as this to make the point and see how the people who have racist car decals, shirts, jerseys, ect. respond when the tables are turned (and still not really).”
Joseph is currently selling his shirts in a variety of colors for $19.95, and Twitter is absolutely here for the experiment.
Funny part about this is that Caucasian isnt even derogatory the way Redskins is. The fact people immediately took offense to something that merely resembled the logo is telling.— IamTrueHate (@_IamTrueHate) July 31, 2018
I have always thought the Redskins logo is racist, but for a minute I was confused, didn't make the connection. I was just like "what is this?" And then when you explained it I was like "damn." And now I *feel* offense about the Redskins logo where before it was intellectual.— Gingersnap Jackson (@TheCheekyGinger) July 31, 2018
This is actually a team tee for the world's lowest jumping basketball team. 47 years and still no dunks.— Tabitha Osika (@tosika75) July 31, 2018
It’s really amazing how people don’t get how we can be offended by the Redskins. My Grandmother dealt with so much shit her whole life for being native and then people are shocked that we don’t want a sports team named like that.
Awesome you did this – I hope some people got it— That guy Marty from Splyce (@Lazerchickenzzz) July 31, 2018
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