Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis has officially taken responsibility for one of the more tone-deaf statements that social media has ever seen. On Tuesday evening, the Raiders' official Twitter account posted a photo depicting the words “I can breathe,” which came in the immediate aftermath of the verdict of former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder trial of George Floyd.
#Raiders owner Mark Davis said the "I Can Breathe" wording came from George Floyd's brother Philonise, who said "Today, we are able to breathe again."
Davis added: "If I offended the family, then I'm deeply, deeply disappointed."
He also said the post won't be deleted.
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) April 21, 2021
“That's my tweet,” Davis has since told Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “That was me. I don't want anyone in the organization taking heat. I take full responsibility for that.”
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) April 20, 2021
As Chauvin was in the midst of murdering Floyd by kneeling on his neck last year, the latter couldn't help but exclaim that he couldn't breathe. Although justice has been served in the court of law, that doesn't negate the fact that Floyd will never take another breath. This extremely tone-deaf statement from Davis and the Raiders also comes approximately seven years after Eric Gardner was seen clinging to life as he too couldn't breathe. NBA superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James wore shorts that said “I can't breathe” in protest to the act of police brutality and racial injustice back in 2014.
It is also worth noting that not only have the Raiders not taken down the tweet, but it is actually the team's “pinned” tweet as it stands right now. At the present moment, the tweet has been quote tweeted almost 53,000 times and has received nearly 21,000 comments, which is never a good sign.
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