The Washington Redskins started a controversial Twitter campaign Thursday afternoon with the hashtag #RedskinsPride, urging users to tweet at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to show what the team means to them.
Reid has repeatedly encouraged NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to push Redskins owner Daniel Snyder on the issue of rebranding the team.
Last week, 50 US senators signed a letter urging the NFL’s leadership to change the name, citing NBA boss Adam Silver’s quick move against Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling as an example.
Earlier this month, the professional football organization let Twitter users fire away at Goodell using the hashtag #AskCommish two days before the NFL Draft in New York City.
Reid used the Twitter session as an opportunity to publicly ask Goodell if he believes he has the "authority to act against racism" in the NFL like Silver did in the NBA.
Twitter users respond negatively to #RedskinsPride:
Today's completely tone deaf, walking-directly-into-a-mess hashtag hijacking: #RedskinsPride http://t.co/INxVd9mEAq
— Corianda Dimes (@corianda) May 29, 2014
#RedskinsPride Is Probably The Worst Hashtag Ever http://t.co/SAbic2sHn1 via @BuzzFeedAndrew @buzzfeed
— Faiz (@fshakir) May 29, 2014
@RotoPat We're witnessing about a 50:1 response rate that is tilted heavily against the team. Tons of mockery of them.
— Faiz (@fshakir) May 29, 2014
Just dove into the #RedskinsPride hashtag. *Only* argument I saw in support of name was that gov't should be too busy to care about racism.
— David P. Woods (@davidpwoods) May 29, 2014
