‘Caucasians’ Shirt Goes Viral for Mocking Redskins, Does Not Have Desired Effect

Apparently, not everyone has heard that the Washington Redskins are no longer called the Washington Redskins.

A picture of a man who is presumably Native American, wearing a tee-shirt that says ‘Caucasians” across the front, went viral on Tuesday. The shirt, an attempt to mock the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins, quickly sparked a reaction on Twitter after user @infamouschar shared the pic.

The man in the pic was not identified.

Of course, the Redskins are now known as the Washington Football Team. Which begs the question of why this photo was shared now? Unless it was just for a laugh. However, if it was intended to spark serious debate by jolting caucasian people out of their alleged racism or indifference by subjecting them to the very same mascot usage that Native Americans have been subjected to, it failed.

Twitter users were quick to either mock the mocking shirt or say they wanted to get one.

The tweet has been retweeted over 80,000 times and liked over 640,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon. One Twitter user suggested that “Washington Rednecks” might be a better name for a shirt since “Redskins” is a derogatory term, while “Caucasians,” though flawed, is not considered derogatory.

However, it’s almost only white people who find the term “Redskins” derogatory.

According to a Washington Post poll taken in 2016, 90% of Native Americans said they were not offended by the term. Of course, none of that prevented the media from intimidating the then-Redskins corporate sponsors from threatening to end their business relationships with the team unless they changed the name.

The Washington Football Team had a good first season, winning their division and clinching their first playoff berth in five years.