A man who carried out a social experiment by swapping the Washington Redskins’ logo for one of a Caucasian man couldn’t believe the response he got from white people.
Frederick Joseph, founder of non-profit organization We Have Stories, intended to wear the shirt to see how many he could catch by surprise, but he could never have predicted the reaction he got.
Taking to social media recently, Joseph explained how he swapped the Redskins’ football team logo of a stereotypical Native American – which has long been deemed racist – for a Caucasian man.
Addressing his 25K followers, Joseph posted two pictures of himself wearing the altered top, before saying he ‘didn’t expect people to be as trash as they were’.
The logo of the shirt showed a white man with brown hair above the ‘Caucasians’ logo, in the style of the usual football shirt. As Joseph pointed out, the shirt didn’t include any racially charged words – unlike the football shirt.
However, ‘that didn’t matter’, as the man went on to explain how he was met with anger from white people when they saw him walking down the street wearing the shirt.
So much so that one man initially tried to bond with Joseph after seeing what he thought was the Redskins’ logo, but quickly changed his attitude when he saw the altered logo and shouted ‘asshole’ at him.
Another woman told Joseph the shirt was disrespectful, but when asked if she thought the same about the actual logo, defended it by saying, ‘no, because that’s the logo!’
Joseph then mentioned a group of white guys who looked threatening, saying two of them looked as though they were going to cross the street to ‘have a word’ with him.
After making the point that he received snide comments, rude remarks, and several eye rolls while wearing the top, Joseph reflected that he never saw white people doing the same when an actual Redskins top was worn.
He wrote:
Basically, I was being shamed as a black person for wearing a non-disrespectful shirt with a white person logo on it.
But people wear apparel and jerseys with logos depicting things such as a Native American and call them “redskins”… whew chile, the hypocrisy and privilege.
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.
Joseph told Huffington Post he hopes his experiment will inspire others to do the same, although he did warn people to ‘be safe out there’.
He said:
I hope to see people in cities like D.C. or Cleveland conduct these experiments as well.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).