NHL’s San Jose Sharks ridiculed for Juneteenth Twitter post

The NHL’s San Jose Sharks hockey team is facing backlash over a now-deleted Juneteenth tweet. 

The Sharks shared to Twitter on Wednesday a graphic commemorating the upcoming Juneteenth holiday with an image showing the team’s mascot chopping on the shackles of an enslaved person. 

The caption read “Celebrate Freedom” with emoji fists in different skin tones.

sharks freed the slaves pic.twitter.com/STO0XAPdPY

— read ‘playing in the dark’ by toni morrison! (@queersocialism) June 16, 2021

The tweet was up for two hours before being promptly deleted on the Twitter profile. Twitter users were quick to call out the team for a tweet that was deemed tone-deaf.

,,,,,,, pic.twitter.com/2sQsjnnCGM

— Megan Reyes (@megreyes_) June 16, 2021

If any of my friends are looking for work as a social media coordinator, my guess is the San Jose Sharks will have an opening in the next day or two. pic.twitter.com/aFu7cQ2qnN

— Tyler Ivens (@TylerIvens) June 16, 2021

The NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders in April drew criticism over a tweet they posted shortly after the verdict of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Using a quote which Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, said after the verdict. 

pic.twitter.com/eeWbMYHK3U

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) April 20, 2021

This comes as the House on Wednesday was preparing to vote to make Juneteenth, a day in June which commemorates the last enslaved people to be emancipated, a national holiday.

The graphic is still up on the team’s website under their Juneteenth resource page.

The Hill has reached out the NHL for comment.