Last week, leading sports uniform expert Paul Lukas reported that the Cleveland Indians were changing their “primary logo” from Chief Wahoo to the block C, but that this would entail no changes to the team’s uniforms.
The Indians organization quickly denied the report, first to CBS Cleveland 92.3 FM’s TJ Zuppe, and later through two different Northeast Ohio Media Group reporters, Mark Naymik and Glenn Reynolds. “Chief Wahoo has not been demoted despite report, say Cleveland Indians,” read the headline to Naymik’s column at Cleveland.com.
But Lukas stood by his reporting in a piece at ESPN.com, stating that he confirmed it with two additional sources, and explaining that the main effect of the logo’s redesignation will be that “media outlets — including SportsCenter and newspapers — would start using the block C, instead of Wahoo, as their visual shorthand for the team.”
Chris Creamer of Sportslogos.net confirmed Lukas’ report through his own sources, stating that “there’s no ‘maybe’ about this change of designation, it’s a done deal. It’s not going to be announced officially by the team but anyone with access to MLB’s branding guides for 2014 will see exactly what we’re talking about.”
And in addressing the reports of Wahoo’s demotion, the Indians organization did confirm, in its typically mushmouthed way of discussing the logo, that Wahoo has in fact been redesignated in this year’s edition of MLB’s style guide.
“It’s a nature of changing the, maybe the designation that you might see that Major League Baseball uses in their style guide,” said the club’s director of communications Curtis Danburg, who called it “more of a discretionary change,” and “nothing to do with the approach in locally how we use it or anything to read into.”
So despite the headlines, and despite Danburg’s additional statements that “there’s no change to our approach at all,” that “there’s no process to eliminate Chief Wahoo,” and that the whole issue is “largely about ‘paperwork,'” Wahoo has in fact been demoted and is in fact no longer the Indians’ primary logo in a very real way on a national if not local level.
But more interesting than a debate about whether this redesignation constitutes a “demotion” or not is the question of whether the change was forced on the Indians organization by MLB’s front office. When Danburg says, “the fact of the matter is there’s no change to our approach at all,” he’s not ruling out a change to the league’s approach to Chief Wahoo. When he calls it “more of a discretionary change,” he raises the question of just whose discretion was exercised here.
It’s safe to assume that Cleveland ownership’s attachments to the symbol wouldn’t be shared by league executives in New York, who were the ones presumably responsible for Wahoo’s conspicuous absence at last summer’s All Star Weekend. There’s every reason to think that the league would want to keep a safe distance from the logo, and would exercise whatever discretion it has to do so. A decision to cut Wahoo from national media publications would be an easy one for the league to make, if not as easy for the Indians. Though if it was the Indians who made the decision, then Danburg’s statement that “there’s no change to [the organization’s] approach at all” is a flat untruth.
Anyway, while one might be inclined to applaud the league or the Cleveland organization, whomever is responsible for Wahoo’s demotion, this is all nothing more than just another absurd and cowardly half-measure to add to a growing list of them. As much as MLB’s style guide has now been cleaned up, Wahoo was already a logo that the Indians admittedly can’t make a mascot out of, or animate in any other way; a logo that they admittedly can’t really use during spring training, because that’s in Arizona and there are too many actual Native Americans there; and, again, a logo that they can’t take to the All Star Game, or hardly say more than boo about without sounding like complete blubbering fools. Oh, no Wahoo stars and stripes caps either. Because of course, “primary logo” or not, Wahoo is still a caricature of one of history’s most marginalized races of people, created at a time when it was widely acceptable in Western culture to caricature minority races with the specific purpose of marginalizing if not enslaving or systematically murdering them. It’s a direct and proximate product of a legacy of white supremacy, that no less an authority than Larry Doby once explicitly compared to “blackface minstrel shows.” It’s legitimately mind-blowing that Wahoo still manages to exist as an official symbol of anything in corporate America today, and it’s completely incredible the way the Dolan family keeps trotting out their communications people to spew pure bullshit about the thing every time someone suggests that it might or should finally be going away.
As for reasons why the Indians haven’t just gotten rid of the damn thing already, the easiest inferences are less mind-blowing than depressing. In explaining that “there [is] no immediate need or thoughts to change [the organization’s] approach” to Wahoo, Danburg did allow the caveat that “it’s certainly a hot issue, especially with what’s going on in D.C. with the Redskins and [the organization is] certainly monitoring that.”
But the only thing that the Indians could possibly be “monitoring” here is how long they can get away with maintaining their position of cowardice before finally having to legitimately address the problem (or “rip off the Band-Aid,” as Lukas puts it). Even giving the Dolans the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they’re really not so attached to the idea of the white man’s divine right to make baseball logos out of genocide victims, it’s apparent that they’re at least afraid of offending their paying customers who are.
As much as anything else, this fear of offending Wahoo’s fans says that the Dolans don’t believe that they can attract and maintain a fanbase in a legitimate way, like by consistently winning baseball games. Given the Indians’ position at the bottom end of MLB’s tilted economic playing field, the club’s ownership would be naturally more inclined than the average to give in to this kind of fear.
So they do, and MLB mostly just looks the other way, with one or both of the organizations sweeping the logo under the rug whenever they think they can get away with it. But “primary logo” or not, by whomever’s decision, for whatever reason, the fact that Wahoo still appears as an official symbol of anything related to Major League Baseball or Cleveland, Ohio, is still an abomination. And so is an organization called the Cleveland Indians that continues to cling to this thing that belongs nowhere but in museums or the garbage in 2014.
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2014.
Local sports-talk radio – minus Tony Grossi – is as heavy a dose of ridiculous gossip built on shaky sources as anything found in other sports media sources in the area. But, it appears the Dolan family is positioning the franchise for a new nickname, while retaining the primary uniform colors. Dan Snyder – and the fall of the Redskins name – may the key for the dominoes to fall in MLB.
And so begins a process that will eventually dissolve Chief Wahoo and the nickname ‘Indians’. I just hope when that happens we can change the name of the Browns too.
Well I would think that the ‘people’ protesting all around the world for over 20 years might have had some influence on management of Major League Baseball to force the racists Chief Wahoo logo to be phased out. After all it is a ‘black’ mark (sorry for the pun) against not only them but to all professional baseball teams.
American Cultural Ambassador David Jakupca and I, of the International Center for Environmental Arts are proud to be a Major Activists and Players in Chief Wahoo’s removal to the Western Reserve Historical Society.
Chief Wahoo – People Not Mascots’ Logo
Artist : David Jakupca
The ‘People Not Mascots’ Logo is meant to be a Native American protest caricature of the Cleveland Indians Baseball team. It was originally painted by David Jakupca at the historic ARK in Berea incorporating elements of the Theory of Iceality on Environmental Arts, it has drawn criticism from some sportswriters, fans and local businessmen, but gained immediate acceptance among humanitarian, religious groups and Native Americans. It gained international popular attention when it was it exhibited by ICEA at the 1993 UN World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria and has become one of the most recognized anti-racists logo’s in existence. It also caused repercussions for the groups connected with using the logo in protest demonstrations and this has been documented in the Internecine Matrix.
Google Reference Links:
“INTERNECINE MATRIX Chief Wahoo”
“WIKIPEDIA Chief Wahoo”
So why don’t they change the Tomahawk the braves logo or the sphere FSU logo. those are both Native American related. I am Native American and do NOT find any of these offensive.
I still don’t understand why this is news. Although I don’t agree with it, the Chief has been the secondary logo for at least a year or two. If you watch highlight shows, they show the “C” instead of the Chief.
I can’t wait for the Wahoo logo and the team name to be retired. Once these two things happen, the roadblocks that have kept Native Americans second class citizens will once and for all be taken down. It will be the beginning of a “renaissance” period for Native Americans! We all know that the symbolism of changing the names and logo of sports teams is the most meaningful action we can participate in to make a major difference in the lives of those people whom these atrocities supposedly represent.
Political correctness is going crazy. I can’t be openly racist and mock an entire group of people anymore, so obviously this country is doomed.
Representatives from the Oneida Indian Nation were slated to meet with the United Nations’ Human Rights Office regarding the Washington Redskins nickname. Though the U.N. has no power in this arena, the possibility of a growing international spotlight in the sporting world may find nervous pro team owners more receptive to change…instead of waiting for one of their brethren to pave the way by voluntarily creating a new nickname and logo.
while the chief wahoo caricature could be seen as offensive to some, the nickname “indians” is not, at all. political correctness is ridiculous anyway
Any one old enough to remember the civil rights movement of the Sixties is also wise enough to realize that phasing out Wahoo does not mean that Wahoo will disappear any time soon.
Not unless anyone wearing The Chief is not allowed in the ballpark and is subject to arrest on the street. There is so much Wahoo merch floating around, and in drawers and closets, that you’ll see it for another twenty years.
And some die-hards will cling ever more tightly to Wahoo, regardless of whether it’s politically incorrect. People…especially sports fans…are funny…the harder and harsher the north wind blows, the more tightly they wrap their garments about them. Friendly persuasion sometimes works better than brute force.
Forcing them to give up Wahoo will only make them cling to the symbol of “The Tribe”, for whatever reasons…ranging from nostalgia to contrariness to just plain being pissed off at change to a constant in their lives.
When I think of an older Indians fan, I think of a gray-stubbled, grizzled, stubborn, white, blue-collar suburban factory rat who will keep his jersey or his hat, wear it no matter what, and tell anyone who doesn’t like it where they can stick it.
They are like the folks down in Mississippi and Georgia who tried to stop the march of time and social change with ax handles and war clubs…and yes, even baseball bats. You’ll have to pry the shirts, jackets, and hats from their cold dead hands.
That’s just the way certain people are…and the way they think. Clevelanders are not all necessarily racist Neanderthals…but they don’t like being told what to do by the PC police.
Me? I couldn’t care less, either way…I’m a Cub fan. Pray for me.
Chuckles the Clown
I have been a baseball/Indians fan since I was a kid in the 60’s and proudly wore my Chief Wahoo cap and jersey through thick and thin without ever hearing anything about being a racist from anybody until fairly recently. What is this, a persecution fad gone insane?
I’m 66 and a lifelong Indians fan. The city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio, and the United States have bigger problems than a damn logo. I personally like Chief Wahoo and have plenty of shirts, caps, and a jacket. I will always wear them. Screw the moral minority. Keep the Chief.
Hmm, an interesting prospect, MLB forcing the Indians to make Wahoo the secondary mascot. Now that I think about it, that’s probably exactly what happened.
So the Indians will become logo-less, just like the Browns.
Wahoo is NOT politically incorrect! That is a lie. Get on with using your brains.