Without an accompanying announcement, on the
evening of July 2nd, Nike has memory-holed Washington
Redskins merchandise. The instigating factor seems to be that “87
investment firms sent” a letter to Nike (and three other corporate sponsors).
But the woke activists have been clamoring for this change for a decade, and
they finally have a triggering an event to make the final push.
There’s no question that the term “redskins” is a racial
slur and is unacceptable to use in any context other than the football team, but
what has changed in the past week that makes the term more offensive or the
situation worse than it was a month ago? The murder of George Floyd has nothing
to do with the name of an NFL team in Washington. There is no connection to
police brutality; George Floyd was not a Native American; his murderer has no
relationship to the football team. Changing the name of a football team will
not improve a single black life.
Nike has become especially activist in the past few years,
most notably cancelling a shoe that celebrated Betsy Ross and the American flag
because a handful of white supremacists used it as their symbol. (There
is no evidence that this was a popular or common symbol among these people.)
Now, it seems, they are taking it upon themselves to “fix” the Redskins
offensiveness.
Recently, the term Karen has been growing in usage, and it
refers to a person who thinks they’re being considerate but are “demanding [their] own way at
the expense of others.” This is exactly what Nike is doing.
The only people who can legitimately be offended by the
Redskins’ name are Native Americans. If they demand to retire the team name,
then the NFL should take those demands seriously. Even Nike could take
them seriously, but hiding merchandise and refusing to sell it for a single
team in order to exact capitulation is not the right approach. Nike is hurting
itself and the fans and the team, all in an effort to demonstrate their
cultural awareness and that they believe the Redskins name is offensive to
others (who heretofore have not been the prominent actors in this situation).
If Nike actually cared about the effects on Native
Americans, they should first provide evidence that this matters, in a
significant way, to Native Americans, and isn’t just a cause celebre for its
white activists. Secondly, if Nike felt really strongly, they could discontinue
all business with the NFL, but that would be a big loss, bigger than they’re
willing to lose for this cause. More reasonably, Nike should commit to donating
all profits from Redskin merchandise to Native American groups or hire more
Native Americans. These actions would represent a win-win for all involved and
avoid the brinksmanship culture that the warriors on both sides seem to want.
If Nike insists on an arms race, the NFL, though, should
respond in kind. This is the NFL’s decision, not Nike’s. The NFL should not
give in to pressure from Nike as they do not represent the potential victims.
Corporations and states are both expanding the business of boycotting against
entities they disagree with. Both corporations and state governments have
stopped doing business with states that pass laws that they disagree with even
though a majority of the people in those states are in agreement with the laws.
Letting these companies and states bully everyone else around is
anti-democratic.
The NFL should raise the stakes by telling Nike that if they
don’t sell apparel for one team, they can’t sell it for any other team. They
should, in private, suggest Nike take the more constructive actions listed
above. If Nike insists, then the NFL should exclude Nike from consideration of
being a partner in the future.
NFL fans should also step into the fray by boycotting Nike.
If Nike wants to show how much it cares about this issue by foregoing some
profits, then NFL fans should oblige them. For twenty years, activists have
been making demands and bullying society to get their own way. Even though
these activists make up a tiny slice of the population, they claim they speak
for an oppressed majority, and the actual majority are sympathetic and don’t
want to offend anyone, so they relent. But the activists are never satiated,
they just move on to the next cause and claim new victims and decry anyone who
disagrees.
It is time for the sensible majority to stop standing
astride and muttering, “OK, you feel more strongly than I do.” And instead
stand between them and their objective and yell “Stop! We will no longer listen
to culture warriors claiming to represent actual victims.” The activist
bullying process has repeated itself enough times to understand that it will
only end when they have remade society to fit their naïve notion of perfect
harmony where no one offends anyone else because the only way that society
exists is with Big Brother monitoring every action we take.
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