Washington Redskins Merchandise Pulled From Retailers

On July 8, 2020, Amazon decided to follow the footsteps of Nike, Walmart, and Target by removing all Washington Redskins merchandise. This decision has come to amid protests from Native Americans all over the United States.

What Brings This On?

Seven Native American organizations and leaders have written a letter to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on July 6th. In the letter, they ask Goodell to call for the Redskins to change their name. According to The Associated Press, there were 15 Native American advocate signatures on it. The expectation of the groups is for “the NFL to engage in a robust, meaningful reconciliation process with Native American leaders, tribes, and organizations to repair the decades of emotional violence and other serious harms this racist team name has caused to Native People.

Due to the realization of the racist name, many sponsors began saying they would pull their funds from the team’s stadium; if they choose not to change their name. When the sponsor began coming out and publicly saying their belief’s about the team’s name; the organization decided to have a review.

The Redskins owner, Dan Snyder went on record saying, “this process allows the team to take into account not only the proud tradition and history of the franchise but also input from our alumni, the organization, sponsors, the National Football League and the local community it is proud to represent on an off the field.”

The Call For  Change

For many years, Native American advocates have been fighting with the Redskins and the baseball team The Atlanta Braves, to change their names and mascots. On July 2, 2020, FedEx announced that they would pull their sponsorship if the Redskins decides not to comply. FedEx’s sponsorship is worth $205 million, which is set to expire in 2025.

Amazon told all of its sellers that they had 48 hours to pull all of the flagged merchandise from their site. According to CNBC, the notice to the sellers stated due to the “announcement from the Washington team and the NFL, we are removing products with the team’s name and logo from our stores.” The statement further stated that if people did not comply with the announcement, it “may result in deactivation.”

Written by Sheena Robertson

Sources:

Newsweek: Amazon Will Remove Washington Redskins Merchandise Within 48 Hours

Tampa Bay Times: Native Americans to NFL: Change Redskins name now

Yahoo!: Amazon removes Washington Redskins merchandise from website

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