ESPN’s Olbermann Compares ‘Offensive’ Washington Redskins to Confederate Flag

In lieu of the Confederate flag controversy, Keith Olbermann opened his ESPN2 show “Olbermann” on Wednesday with a monologue where he explained that the Confederate flag “can represent evil, and represent genocide, and the persecution, and mockery of a people because of the color of their skin.”

Olbermann then likened the Washington Redskins team name to the Confederate flag, saying it also “can represent evil, and represent genocide, and the persecution, and mockery of a people because of the color of their skin.”

“We see that a symbol like a flag cannot only invoke and encourage racism, and violence, and madness, and murder, and treason, but it can do something even worse. It can represent evil, and represent genocide, and the persecution, and mockery of a people because of the color of their skin. If a flag can do that, a football team name, beamed into our homes, our headphones, our minds everyday, it can represent the same kind of evil, the same kind of genocide, same kind of persecution and mockery of a group of people because of the color of their skin. There is a good reason Dan Snyder’s lawyer did not tell the judge the name ‘Redskins’ isn’t offensive. That is because it is. And he knows it.”