Per Adweek’s Mary Emily O’Hara, 87 different shareholders and investment firms, whose financial involvement totals more than $620 billion in assets, have asked Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to end their business relationships with the Washington Redskins due to the racist nature of the team’s nickname.
While team owner Dan Snyder has said that he will never change the team’s name, citing franchise tradition, he has been pressured for years by different groups to do so. Now, the pressure is financial in a way it hasn’t been before.
Letters from the investors to the three major brands include representation from First Peoples Worldwide, Oneida Nation Trust Enrollment Committee, Trillium Asset Management, LLC Boston Common Asset Management, LLC Boston Trust Walden Mercy Investment Services and First Affirmative Financial Network. About 80 other firms and trusts have added their names.
“This is a broader movement now that’s happening that Indigenous peoples are part of,” Carla Fredericks, director of First Peoples Worldwide and director of the University of Colorado Law School’s American Indian Law Clinic, told O’Hara. “Indigenous peoples were sort of left out of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s in many respects, because our conditions were so dire on reservations and our ability to engage publicly was very limited because of that. With social media now, obviously everything is very different.
“I’m very encouraged by the rising awareness of how every dollar you spend is a vote you cast on your values. And that applies to money you have in investments as well as any brands you support.”
The letter to John Donahoe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nike, reads in part:
We appreciate that Nike has spoken up in support of the protests stating “Systemic racism and the events that have unfolded across America over the past few weeks serve as an urgent reminder of the continued change needed in our society. … The NIKE, Inc. family can always do more but will never stop striving to role model how a diverse company acts.”
Further, we acknowledge that Nike has taken steps to be more transparent about its workforce diversity. And in 2018, Nike launched an ad-campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick which focused on the protests he began in 2016. At the time, Nike’s ad-campaign helped keep alive the public conversation around systemic racism and police brutality. We also note that Nike has stepped back from using the Washington football team name on some products.
However, Nike continues to provide uniforms and equipment to the Washington D.C. NFL football team which bears the logo and name. Further, it produces and sells thousands of jerseys and other apparel with the team’s racist name and logo. This association with and facilitation of the racism inherent in the name and logo runs contrary to the very sentiments expressed by the company.
The letter to FedEx, which holds the naming rights to the team’s stadium, reads in part:
It is commendable that FedEx has asserted that “There is absolutely no place for racism or unequal treatment anywhere, and we must unequivocally speak out and reject it when we see it. …It’s also about fostering acceptance, promoting anti-biases, and encouraging a more inclusive society. These values are core to who we are and how we operate.”
However, FedEx is facilitating the perpetuation of this racist logo and name by sponsoring the team stadium. In doing so, FedEx is associating its brand with a symbol of hate and prejudice – giving it the company’s imprimatur.
This association with and facilitation of the racism inherent in the name and logo runs contrary to the very sentiments expressed by the company. Therefore, the undersigned 85 investors representing over $620 billion in assets, ask you to move beyond the words on paper and to live up to the principles FedEx is asserting by apply them to your stadium sponsorship relationship to the Washington D.C. NFL football franchise – terminate your business and public relationships with the franchise, if it does not stop using the name “Redskins.”
Neither the Redskins nor the NFL responded to Adweek’s reqests for comment. FedEx responded, “We direct any questions about the name of the NFL team in Washington to the franchise owner.”
The team did recently remove a monument to former team owner George Preston Marshall, the man who led the NFL’s ban on black players from 1934 through 1945, and the owner of the last team to integrate after the ban was rescinded. Marshall would not capitulate until pressure from Stewart L. Udall, John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of the Interior, forced his hand. Udall dangled stadium rights in front of Marshall, and Marshall had no choice but to bend.
But in a time when sensitivity to racist phrases is more acute than ever for a host of reasons, any organization that lags behind, as the Redskins have done, will see similar pressure — as Snyder’s team has. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said that if the team ever wants a stadium in the nation’s capital as opposed to FedEx’s Field’s Landover, Maryland location, changes will have to be made.
“I think it’s past time for the team to deal with what offends so many people,” Bowser said in a June interview with radio station The Team 980. “And this is a great franchise with a great history that’s beloved in Washington. And it deserves a name that reflects the affection that we’ve built for the team.”
It remains to be seen whether Snyder does what Marshall eventually had to do — bow to the pressure, and do the right thing.