Nestle has participated in modern slavery, deforestation, and animal abuse. The international food conglomerate is one of the world’s biggest plastic polluters, raids public water supplies, and works hand in glove with dictators.
And now Daniel Snyder is officially worse than Nestle.
On Tuesday, Allen’s Lollies, an Australian arm of Nestle, announced a name change for two of its candies in a Facebook post.
“At Allen’s we are about creating smiles,” the company said in its statement. “Today we announced that we will change the name of Red Skins and Chicos lollies. The decision acknowledges the need to keep creating smiles, ensuring that nothing we do marginalises our friends, neighbours and colleagues, or is out of step with our values. We haven’t finalised the new names, but we’ll keep you posted. We appreciate the comments we have received on the need for change.”
The Washington football team, of course, has been hearing such comments for years but continues to keep its name. Snyder has been very clear in saying he “NEVER” plans to change it. The team did announce on Saturday that it will retire number 49 for the late Bobby Mitchell, the Hall of Famer who came to D.C. in 1962 and finally integrated what had been the last all-white NFL team. The owner who kept the team segregated, George Preston Marshall, will have his name removed from a seating level at FedEx Field, and that level will be renamed for Mitchell.
Last week, a memorial statue of Marshall was removed from outside RFK Stadium, where Washington played its home games from 1961-96. Because the stadium was on federal land, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and eventual stadium namesake Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy threatened to revoke the team’s lease unless Marshall integrated the team.
Marshall responded by drafting the first Black man to win the Heisman Trophy, running back Ernie Davis out of Syracuse, but Davis said, “I won’t play for that S.O.B.” Washington traded Davis to Cleveland for Mitchell.
It’s also the racist Marshall who named the team in the first place. In the early days of the NFL, it was common for teams to take the names of the baseball teams they shared parks with. That’s why the New York Giants have their name, as well as the defunct Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Washington Senators. The Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears also owe their nicknames to building off the popularity of their cities’ baseball teams.
The current Washington team started in Boston as the Braves, playing at Braves Field in 1932. When they moved to Fenway Park the next year, Marshall changed the name and dialed up the racism, including having players wear war paint on their faces and the coach wearing a Sioux headdress.
The name stayed the same when the team moved to Washington in 1937, and remains in place today. It’s too racist of a name for Nestle, one of the most evil corporations in the world, but it’s as fine with Snyder as it was with the super racist Marshall.