MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Next year, FedEx will celebrate 50 years as a company. But the overnight shipping giant and Memphis’ largest private employer has never flexed its powerful economic muscle more than when it literally forced a pro football team to change its name.
The NFL’s Washington Redskins announced Monday they are retiring the controversial nickname – along with the team logo which depicts an actual Native American chief.
FedEx was the first of several companies to call for dropping the Redskins name amid weeks of protests and soul searching over systemic racial inequality in American society. FedEx owns the naming rights to the stadium where the team plays, under a 27-year, $205 million dollar deal that started in 1999.
Native American groups and others have long protested the offensive nickname – to no avail. And FedEx previously had said next to nothing.
But that was before the George Floyd effect. I’m referring to the Black man who was killed in May by a white Minneapolis police officer who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. The brutal killing sparked an unprecedented reckoning in America that FedEx and other entities could not ignore.
The fact is, FedEx is more than just a package handler. It is an international brand that stands for equality, diversity, and progress. So really, it had no choice. It had to force the name change. And thankfully, it did. And that’s my point of view.