Like most brands, Washington’s NFL team uses its social-media accounts to offer greetings to its fans and followers on every major and minor holiday. But perhaps the team—whose name is commonly defined as a racial slur against Native Americans—would have learned from last year that it should probably skip Thanksgiving.
Nope.
Wishing you and your family a Happy #Thanksgiving. pic.twitter.com/qI3U7hbGhK
— Washington Redskins (@Redskins) November 26, 2015
It appears the team did not learn from a backlash to its 2014 Thanksgiving tweet, and this one sparked another wave of condemnation:
didn’t these fools do this last year, too? just let this one pass, man. https://t.co/O610e0k4Wu
— El Flaco (@bomani_jones) November 26, 2015
Trolling. https://t.co/e5DKG8Xwyb
— Lavelle Porter (@alavelleporter) November 26, 2015
.@Redskins pic.twitter.com/qZN2C5zD1I
— Robot Butt (@thisisrobotbutt) November 26, 2015
Smallpox blankets 1/2 off in the Pro Shop https://t.co/smGd12DclK
— Rummy (@RumfordJohnny) November 26, 2015
.@Redskins pic.twitter.com/7YIui0qMHa
— Skip Jayless (@Jay_Sanin) November 26, 2015
@Redskins I heard there was a PR position open
— Hurell The Human (@Sir_Hurizzel) November 26, 2015
Washington’s social media team reading their mentions right now. pic.twitter.com/wwWcjBsRgw
— Robert Flores (@RoFloESPN) November 26, 2015
Many Native Americans do not celebrate Thanksgiving, owing to the holiday’s colonial origins. The United American Indians of New England calls the holiday a “reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture.” The group marks today as a National Day of Mourning to serve “a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.”
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
