SALT LAKE CITY — Yahoo is facing heavy criticism for calling Chris Pratt a “white supremacist” over a T-shirt he wore, according to Fox News.
Pratt was recently seen wearing a T-shirt that included the American flag and a coiled rattlesnake with the text “Don’t tread on me” written beneath it.
According to Fox News, the “don’t tread on me” motto and the rattlesnake are symbols for the Gadsen flag, “which was created by American general Christopher Gadsden in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. It was meant to symbolize liberty and freedom,” according to Fox News. “In recent years, the flag has been revived by the Tea Party.”
Yahoo UK wrote an article about the shirt and originally titled it, “Chris Pratt criticized for ‘white supremacist’ T-shirt.” The headline later changed to “Chris Pratt criticized for T-shirt choice.” The article referenced six tweets that condemned Pratt’s shirt.
Here’s how the article described the flag: “Although it is one of the symbols and flags used by the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team, Metallica, as well as some libertarian groups, over the years the flag has been adopted by far right political groups like the Tea Party, as well as gun-toting supporters of the Second Amendment.
- “It has therefore become a symbol of more conservative and far right individuals and, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the U.S., it also is ‘sometimes interpreted to convey racially tinged messages in some contexts.’”
But media members on Twitter criticized the article.
Aaron Blake of The Washington Post wrote that the article won’t help the perception of the mainstream media.
- “… The whole thing is completely counterproductive when it comes to the debate we’re having right now. It makes the media look rabid for this controversy and for more symbols to associate with racism.”
- “Often left out will be the journalists of all stripes crying foul over the piece’s publication, along with the fact that it was published by the U.K. Movies division of Yahoo, not its U.S. political journalists. It will be used in the service of defending Trump’s conduct, despite his sentiment being indisputably and historically directly tied to racism. It may not ultimately define the debate, but it certainly doesn’t help.”