FSU apologizes for “foolishly posting” MLK day tweet

Tallahassee, Fla — An effort to recognize civil-rights-icon, Martin Luther King Jr., on his birthday got chopped in a hurry for Florida State University sports teams.

The Seminoles sent out a tweet that showed Martin Luther King Jr. wearing a football glove and performing the schools traditional Tomahawk Chop.

The chop is a F.S.U. tradition that’s been widely criticized as being insensitive to Native American culture.

Yesterdays tweet was pulled after less than an hour on twitter, but not before it attracted significant criticism.

An apology soon went out that read: “In a well-intentioned effort to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. on this special day, a member of our recruiting staff created a graphic using one of Dr. King's quotes—‘If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.’ The quote resonated with our program’s Do Something mantra. However, in our attempt to more closely connect the message to F.S.U., we foolishly posted a graphic that was not in line with our intent. We are sorry for missing the mark in our attempt to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy.’