Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been accused by rap star Wale of hypocrisy over his claim that "Redskins" is a racist name.
Wale calls the Nevada Democrat "super-sketchy" for demanding that the National Football League's Washington team change its moniker because it's offensive to American Indians, reports the
Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Reid was among 50 Democratic senators who urged NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to force Redskins owner Dan Snyder to change the team's name. A letter signed by 49 of the senators was not passed to
Republican senators to sign. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson sent a
separate letter.
Now Wale, whose last album "The Gifted" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, has written to his 3.65 million followers
on Twitter, saying Reid is attempting to use the controversy to promote himself.
"Anyone been following the Senator Reid stuff?" wrote Wale, while shortening words and using slang to fit into his tweets. "I don't respect it. "He pointin fingers, but he super sketchy. Senator Reid got a lot to say about other ppl bein racist. But I did a lil research. He sketchy."
Wale was referring to a 2010 controversy when Reid had to apologize after being quoted in a book saying that President Barack Obama was "light-skinned" and had "no Negro dialect."
The rapper tweeted that Reid now all of sudden is "a crusader for what's right in race." He also wrote, "Senator Reid don't know anything about Washington team and I doubt he cares, he just using a sensitive time to garner attention. Easy call."
Wale, a Nigerian-American who was born Olubowale Victor Akintimehin in Washington, D.C., added that Reid is "tryna use racism to make a bigger name for his self. I'm. Not into politics like that but it's a right an wrong thing."
The newspaper noted that Wale is a close friend of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, and he's said to have a tattoo of former tight end Chris Cooley.
Redskins President Bruce Allen
has declared that the team name is not racist and invited Reid in a letter to a game this fall "where you would witness first-hand that the Washington Redskins are a positive, unifying force for our community in a city and a region that is divided on so many levels."