Indianapolis legend and Alabama A&M alumnus Robert Mathis weighed in on the social media post that has had the HBCU community on fire for the past 24 hours. The official page of the Indianapolis Colts they felt the move showed a lack of cultural sensitivity since the error occurred on June 16.
Franklin shared the original tweet with photos of himself with his fraternity gear from his college days. He captioned it: “For those curious, yes, I am a proud member of the Kappa Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., dating back to my days at Syracuse University.”
Robert Mathis looked at it from a different and more humorous perspective. Mathis is also a member of Omega Psi Phi, having been initiated into the organization’s Nu Epsilon chapter at Alabama A&M. After graduating, he had a legendary career with the Colts from 2003 to 2016, often representing his fraternity after big plays. According to him, Colts fans didn’t understand what he was doing.
“I remember Colts fans thinking I created a new colts signal my 03-04 rookie year and started throwing hooks at me,” he posted on his X page with several laughing emojis.
Unlike Mathis, however, many were quick to condemn the Colts.
“It’s essential to have Black creatives somewhere on your creative and social team…” noted X user @jaydynjenaya.
“This really isn’t that hard, man. He is not vomiting 4. He is part of Omega Psi Phi. It is a historically black fraternity. Asking athletes these questions before posting is important, welcome and necessary if you don’t know these things,” posted @Dom_Palumbo9.
“I feel like it’s intentional. This is the 3rd time a @NFL team got a hand sign/symbol from the NPHC Divine 9 organization wrong and labeled it as something it wasn’t lmao smh. @Colts like BFFR,” shared @andreharris89.
“In the age of social media… am I the only person who thinks this was done on purpose? How many white adults left in the US don’t know about BGLOs? I don’t think so,” wrote @Coach_Moore_CG.
“The black person in the social media department must have been out by June 16th. That’s the only explanation,” noted HBCU sports analyst BJ Jones posted.
“Everyone needs to achieve some diversity in their social media team. He is honoring his fraternity, not the number 44,” @clarencehilljr posted.
“At this point it is clearly a choice to be ignorant. And I’m usually not a heavy girl, ESPECIALLY when it comes to social media managers, but this has to stop,” @itsagreenthingg posted.
