On Tuesday, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted by jurors of murdering an African-American man by the name of George Floyd last May.
After deliberating for less than 24 hours, the jurors found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. It wasn’t a surprising verdict after the man was seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, resulting in his death.
Following the verdict, those around the sports world had their reactions. That included the Las Vegas Raiders sending out the most unfortunate of tweets.
While seemingly well intentioned, there’s levels of ignorance to this social media post. Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past several years, you know that a black man by the name of Eric Garner was heard saying “I can’t breathe” as he was killed by a New York City police officer back in 2014. The term has since help define the Black Lives Matter movement.
For many, Tuesday’s verdict in the Chauvin murder trial brought about long-awaited justice. However, it does not change the systemic racism that is built in within American society. One verdict won’t do that. Needless to say, a lot of people had reactions to the Raiders’ tweet.
After the aforementioned push back, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis took responsibility for the social media post.
“That’s my tweet. That was me,” Davis said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I don’t want anyone in the organization taking heat. I take full responsibility for that.”
Even then, the post remains up nearly 12 hours after it was initially sent.