A Louisiana mayor has banned all Nike purchases by his city’s recreation services. He released a memo on this the day after Nike made Kaepernick the face of the organization, however the memo didn’t mention Kaepernick as the reason.
The memo was obviously leaked and now the mayor of Kenner is explaining why he made the decision:
THE HILL – The mayor issued a statement on Monday explaining that his decision was meant to prevent Nike from “profiting from our taxpayers. “
“I applaud Nike’s message of inclusion and encouragement for everyone to be their best and dream big,” Zahn said in a statement obtained by The New Orleans Advocate. “But I also recognize that Nike, in its zeal to sell shoes, chose to promote and sell a political message.”
Zahn acknowledged that Nike, as a private, for-profit company, could advertise however they wanted but argued that government agencies should not endorse an agenda.
“In Kenner, like every city, our citizens and our taxpayers cover a wide spectrum of political philosophies and agendas,” Zahn wrote in a statement. “We must respect all of those agendas and philosophies.”
“So, when a company uses its advertising as its own political megaphone, government should be fair to all of its people and not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to help that company push its own political agenda,” Zahn continued.
In case you are wondering, Kenner has a population of close to 70,000 people, so it’s a decent sized city.
People in the city are, of course, protesting the mayor’s decision. Here’s some local reporting on that was well as the overall issue:
Obviously I’m not a Nike fan so I do like the decision. But given the tendency of many Republicans to fold under media pressure, we’ll see how long this one lasts before it gets rescinded.