Black Man Wears ‘Caucasians’ T-Shirt To Gauge Hypocrisy About Racist Logos – By David Moye (huffpost.com) / July 31 2018
One woman called the shirt “disrespectful” but said the Washington NFL team’s mascot was OK “because that’s the logo!”
Although many Native Americans find the Washington football team’s name and logo racist, owner Dan Snyder refuses to change the name to something, well, less offensive.
That lack of empathy recently inspired an African-American marketing consultant and culture critic to gauge the level of hypocrisy about racist team logos.
This week, Frederick Joseph walked around New York City wearing a shirt designed to look like a Washington NFL team T-shirt, but with the word “Caucasians” on it instead of “Redskins.”
Not surprisingly, many people were offended to find him wearing a shirt featuring a member of an ethnic group ― even after he reminded them about the original name, which is often used as a racial slur.
Joseph, who made headlines earlier this year after spearheading the viral “Black Panther Challenge,” detailed how wearing the shirt went down in a Twitter thread on Tuesday. It pretty much sums up many people’s hypocrisy about the team logo.
The Hypocrisy of Racist Logos:
Last weekend I decided to wear this shirt, I figured it would catch some by surprise but I didn’t expect people to be as trash as they were. pic.twitter.com/DW5n6QEmOl
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
The shirt is a play on the Washington “Redskins” logo to demonstrate how people look wearing apparel with a logo that is blatantly racially charged and disrespectful.
The shirt doesn’t have any rude language or slurs such as “crackers” or “honkies”… but that didn’t matter pic.twitter.com/TrksTIlGYj
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
I left @SXMProgress after just doing an interview with @XorjeO and it was my first time in public with the shirt on.
A white guy walking by mistook the shirt for an actual team shirt and yelled “Go Skins!” I said “nah”, he then saw my shirt and yelled “asshole!” pic.twitter.com/2apsx126YX
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
Next, an older white lady stopped me in the street and said “why would you wear that? It’s disrespectful!”
So I asked her if she would have said the same if I had on the actually team shirt or another team using disrespectful branding.
She said “no, because that’s the logo!” pic.twitter.com/UaLfIZioS5
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
The third person or rather people was a group of white guys across the street and one pointed at me. I can see from the corner of my eye that two of them were seemingly trying to come across the street and have a word with me.
I wish they would have, but that’s here nor there. pic.twitter.com/cPONjTYUBG
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
As I walked through Manhattan, people looked at me and rolled their eyes, pointed, made snide comments, etc.
But, I’ve never seen white people do the same when people are wearing “Redskins” apparel, which is actually racist versus the word “caucasians” and a white man logo. pic.twitter.com/LSYYVBECn9
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
I was fairly surprised by the reactions of people because again, there are so many disrespectful and racist representations of minorities used for brands and they don’t even think twice.
But, it goes to show how fickle and hypocritical people can be. pic.twitter.com/kemPWBwZ7x
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
I’d be interested to see more people wear shirts and apparel such as this to make the point and see how the people who have racist car decals, shirts, jerseys, etc respond when the tables are turned (and still not really). pic.twitter.com/UyEMCvcD7X
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) July 31, 2018
Joseph told HuffPost that he hopes his experiment catches on elsewhere.
“I hope to see people in cities like D.C. or Cleveland conduct these experiments as well,” he said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/frederick-joseph-caucasians-t-shirt_us_5b60a455e4b0b15aba9d49b1
