Amazon to start pulling Redskins merchandise after AG letter

OLYMPIA - Seattle-based Amazon will begin pulling Washington Redskins football team merchandise from its online marketplace, according to Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

The news came Wednesday less than an hour after Ferguson published a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos in which he urged the retail giant to stop selling the merchandise.

“We commend Amazon for taking this swift action to support this long overdue change,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson urged Bezos to remove the merchandise because of growing calls for the NFL team to change what he called their use of a racial slur in their name.

In his letter, Ferguson avoided using the team name and referred to it as “the name of the National Football League team in Washington D.C.”

The team last week said it would undergo a thorough review of its name. Nike, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart have all stopped selling merchandise with that team name and logo, Ferguson said.

He also encouraged Amazon to do a thorough review of all merchandise that features caricatures of Native Americans as brands or mascots, in consultation with individual tribes and the National Congress of American Indians, and remove offensive merchandise.

“Removing the symbols of white supremacy and racial injustice is one step toward meaningful progress and systemic reform,” Ferguson said.