Nike is Becoming a Corporate Karen

Without an accompanying announcement, on the evening of July 2^nd, 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.