A photo of a man wearing a “Caucasians” T-shirt to mock the NFL team formerly known as the Washington Redskins has gone viral.
The photo: The tweet shared on Sunday by a user named @infamouschar has already racked up nearly 700,000 likes.
According to the New York Post, @infamouschar lifted the photo from the original user, who has yet to be identified.
- In July, the organization once known as the Redskins announced it would be renaming the team in response to a years-long campaign from racial justice activists who felt the moniker was offensive to Native Americans.
- Executives said the team would be known as the Washington Football Team for at least the entire 2020 season, as it worked to settle on a more permanent name.
- The change occurred despite polling in 2016 and 2004 showing that 9 in 10 Native Americans were not offended by the Redskins name.
The reaction: On Twitter, many commenters celebrated the T-shirt as a supposedly clever way to give privileged whites a taste of their own medicine.
- Others, meanwhile, quibbled with the use of the word caucasian, arguing it was an imprecise term for white people that only served to reinforce white supremacy.
- Some white commenters said the “Caucasians” shirt wasn’t offensive to them.
- “The funniest part is virtually no Caucasians would be offended & millions would probably love to have a team,” tweeted An0maly, a popular Twitter personality.
Deja vu: In 2018, New York Times bestselling author Frederick Joseph, who is black, wore a “Caucasians” shirt as a kind of social experiment while he strolled through Manhattan.
Joseph said he was accosted by several angry white people who found his shirt offensive.