The Washington Redskins are slowly but surely losing the battle to retain their controversial namesake and they seemed determined to speed up that process with media campaigns that are almost as out of touch as the term “Redskins”.
Last month, Redskins president Bruce Allen sent a letter to Senator Harry Reid after Reid called for the team to change its name. The team’s brain trust also had the idea of starting a social media campaign to convince Harry Reid that people are totally OK with “Redskins” by tweeting him with the hashtag “RedskinsPride”. Because this is the internet, the response from people was largely to use the hashtag to embarrass the organization itself. Reid’s campaign office went as far to say that they saw “overwhelming opposition” to the team’s name and that the Redskins’ attempt to rally support to their cause “really made our day.” It’s not hard to see why.
#RedskinsPride means a proud tradition of racist owners, criminals as players, and a name that’s a racial slur.
— Avatar Kyoshi (@DearLeader10) May 29, 2014
Stop making laws and make me feel ok about my team’s slur RT @Redskins: Tweet @SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the
— Turnt On Howie (@KeeepSwinging) May 29, 2014
Ignorant commercialization of race. RT @Redskins: Tweet @SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you.
— Daniel Bentley (@DJBentley) May 29, 2014
I’ve loved this team my whole life. Change the name. RT @redskins Tweet @SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride
— paulscan (@paulscan) May 29, 2014
On Monday, Allen took to the media to ensure people that the Redskins’ twitter campaign was a rousing success:
“The social media is the way people get information now, and our fans have spoken very loudly in support of what we’ve been doing,” Allen said in a phone interview Monday. “We got a very good response from our fans.
“Thousands of our fans responded, including hundreds of Native Americans, saying we are their favorite team. I do think that’s the message we’ve been hearing.”
Between this and Dan Snyder’s wonderfully titled PR move charity (the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation), nobody has made a more convincing case for changing the Washington Redskins’ name than the Washington Redskins.
