It probably isn’t a huge surprise that the Washington Redskins’ latest PR move epically backfired. A week after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signed a letter asking league officials from the NFL to force Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder to change the name of the team, the official Twitter account of the franchise decided to fire back. It did not go well.
After posting the message, “Tweet @SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you,” people responded, just not the way the team wanted. “#RacialSlurPride”, “300 years of institutional racism and genocide?”, “normalizing overt racism in the 21st century” and “Embarrassed to root for a team this stupid” were just a few of the Twitter responses passed along to Sen. Reid. In response to Reid’s letter, which asked NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell to “take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of its marquee franchises,” Redskins President Bruce Allen sent Reid his own letter saying that the name carries “a deep and purposeful meaning” …
