For years there has been a debate on the use of logos that depict Native Americans in athletic wear for teams across sports. Many are opposed to the use of logos present in teams like the Washington Redskins a, while some favor what is believed to be a tradition of the teams. Shining light to the subject in an eye-catching way, Frederick Joseph flipped the logo of the football franchise to replace the Native American with a Caucasian male.
Joseph, known for creating the Black Panther Challenge to assist children to see the film, stated on Twitter that he received a reaction to his shirt that was less than positive.
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. pic.twitter.com/DW5n6QEmOl
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
Joseph was aiming to highlight the differences in thought when the shirt was believed to be of the Washington Redskins logo. Responses to the shirt ranged from being called an asshole to “why would you wear that? It’s disrespectful!” but did not feel the same way when it was the original logo.
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 pic.twitter.com/TrksTIlGYj
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
I left @SXMProgress 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!” pic.twitter.com/2apsx126YX
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
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!” pic.twitter.com/UaLfIZioS5
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
The use of Native Americans in logos is not just a matter of the Redskins but also the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Blackhawks. The Indians will remove their logo of “Chief Wafoo” in 2019. There currently is not news for the Redskins or Blackhawks to follow suit.
The action by Joseph, of course, received some backlash by certain members of the Twitter community who have responded with hate statements, pro-Trump and MAGA rhetoric and some simple responses to the shirt.
