Change the Mascot Praises FedEx for Calling on Washington NFL Team to Drop its Racist R-Word Name

ONEIDA NATION HOMELANDS, July 2, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Change the Mascot today released the following statement praising the FedEx Corporation. It comes on the heels of FedEx – a critical sponsor of Washington's NFL team with naming rights for the team's home stadium – calling on the team to change its racist name.

Change the Mascot leader Ray Halbritter said: "Change the Mascot praises FedEx and fully supports its historic request for Washington's NFL team to stop using the R-word racial slur as its name and mascot.

"FedEx is rising to the moment and doing the decent thing by challenging the team to stop disparaging and denigrating people of color by maintaining a team name that is an offensive racist epithet.

"In the past, the team has absurdly claimed that it will not stop slurring people of color because it is a matter of 'tradition.' However, that tradition includes a harmful term that dehumanizes Native peoples. The team's founder George Preston Marshall was an avowed segregationist. Now that memorials to him are being removed, there can be no further justification to clinging to this hateful relic.

"The time to change the name is now, and we urge NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and team owner Dan Snyder to recognize this seminal moment in American history, do the right and decent thing, and finally change the name."

About Change the Mascot:

Change the Mascot is a grassroots campaign that works to educate the public about the damaging effects on Native Americans arising from the continued use of the R-word. This civil and human rights movement has helped reshape the debate surrounding the Washington team's name and brought the issue to the forefront of social consciousness. Since its launch, Change the Mascot has garnered support from a diverse coalition of prominent advocates including elected officials from both parties, Native American tribes, sports icons, leading journalists and news publications, civil and human rights organizations and religious leaders.

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SOURCE Change the Mascot