A secondary benefit of the playoff run has been the further discussion and exposure of the Indians’ use and defense of Chief Wahoo, a racist logo whose time should have long ago expired.
It began with the Toronto series and a trio of huge stories, as far as logo stories go. The first being the Blue Jays’ announcer’s refusal to use the word Indians while talking about the team. In fact, Jerry Howarth said he hadn’t used the name since 1992 when he got a letter from a fan.
“He said, ‘Jerry, I appreciate your work, but in the World Series, it was so offensive to have the tomahawk chop and to have people talk about the ‘powwows on the mound’ and then the Cleveland Indians logo and the Washington Redskins,’” Howarth told The Jeff Blair Show. ”He just wrote it in such a loving, kind way. He said, ‘I would really appreciate it if you would think about what you say with those teams.’”
The second: Former Tribe team president and GM Mark Shapiro said that he was “personally bothered” by the logo.
“The logo — Chief Wahoo — is one that was troubling to me personally,” Shapiro said. “So when I was an official spokesman for the Cleveland Indians, I distanced myself from the fact that it personally bothered me. But we as an organization with strong support from ownership came up with the ‘Block C’ that you’re wearing on your credentials right now. We built equity in the ‘Block C.’
“We gave that alternative for people and I think that we established that as an important logo and now the primary logo for the Cleveland Indians. And so I’m proud of that.
“I think there will be a day, whenever that is, that the people that are making decisions here decide that Chief Wahoo is no longer fitting. But people in this city — over 90 per cent of them — are deeply, deeply passionate about Chief Wahoo and want him to be part of their team. So that’s about all I’ll say because I’m not really focused or care that much about that anymore. That’s my opinion.”
The third story was, of course, the legal challenge in a Canadian court to forbid the broadcast of the Indians’ logo or name on airwaves. That injunction was eventually denied but the gambit managed to get an MLB lawyer on the record about the league’s stance on the name.
Meanwhile, a few ignorant Indians fans have done the expected and gone all out redface to games through the postseason in Cleveland.
Since just the beginning of the playoffs, the renewed spotlight and focus on the deplorable red Sambo has gotten plenty of attention. Here’s just a short and non-exhaustive list of the coverage so far:
– It’s time for Major League Baseball to take a stand on Chief Wahoo (NBC Hardball Talk)
– Indians’ Chief Wahoo logo is racist caricature (New York Daily News)
– Hard To Take MLB Seriously On Inclusion With Indians’ Racially Insensitive ‘Chief Wahoo’ (Forbes)
– Cleveland Indians should say goodbye to Chief Wahoo (ESPN)
– Thumbs up to Cleveland for going to the World Series, but send that f’n Chief Wahoo to oblivion (Daily Kos)
– Indians should quit hedging, retire Chief Wahoo completely (Sporting News)
– The Cleveland Indians are liars (Deadspin)
You get the point.
While the team announced the block C logo as its primary logo before the season, ownership has remained steadfast in its stance that Wahoo won’t be going anywhere. They are “very cognizant and sensitive to both sides of the conversation” but had “no plans of making a change,” a team spokesman told the Washington Post during the summer.
Their hand might be forced. Yesterday, on a segment with Mike & Mike on ESPN, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was asked about Chief Wahoo. Here’s what he said.
“Well, I understand that particular logo is offensive to some people, and I understand why. On the other side of the coin, you have a lot of fans that have history and are invested in the symbols of the Indians. I think that after the World Series, at an appropriate point in time, Mr. [Larry] Dolan and I have agreed we’ll have a conversation about what should happen with that particular logo going forward.”
If you ask a certain contingent of Indians fans, nothing should happen. But the (rightful) momentum to be done once and for all with the racist caricature is growing despite backward-ass, fearful, Trumpian pleas for continued ignorance from certain people. This jackass, for example.
Pressure from the commissioner might actually turn the dial on this debate. (If he decided to apply pressure instead of waffling.)The other thing to consider: If you parse through Mark Shapiro’s quotes above, it’s abundantly apparent keeping the Chief has been a business decision. For years and years now, the Indians have had the lowest or near lowest attendance in baseball. Their TV deal was nice for region and for the time at which it was signed, but it’s a pittance compared to the megadeals brokered in bigger markets. If you’re struggling to fill the seats, attract eyeballs and sell merchandise, you probably figure you can’t afford to alienate fans. We think that’s misguided calculus, that the fans would quickly get over it, but you can understand how ownership and the front office could come to that decision.
So maybe a World Series trip (and, Jobu willing, a World Series championship) assuages some of those business concerns. Maybe with a hefty hike in season tickets for next year, a ticket rake through the playoff games that could damn near well equal or surpass the regular season till in pure dollars, and merchandise flying off the shelves, you’re not so concerned about doing the right thing anymore.
But make no mistake, it’s always been the right thing to do. The question is when and how the Indians are finally forced to do it.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
Author: “If you ask a certain contingent of Indians fans, nothing should happen.”
Former team president: “But people in this city over 90 per cent of them are deeply, deeply passionate about Chief Wahoo and want him to be part of their team.”
Sounds more like a small contingent want a change while almost all of the teams fans are strongly against the change. According to who is this racist? The 7 protesters that go to opening day + the PD editorial board? Where is your outcry over Notre Dames racist fighting Irish? There isn’t one because it isn’t offensive and neither is this it’s a caricature. Lighten up.
Do you think you could have written this article without the insults and still gotten your point across? This is another fine example of liberals insulting and attacking people with differing views.
How many Indians do you know? How many Indians walk around sporting literal red faces and wearing feathers? How much of American history do you remember about the mistreatment of Indians? Or is your knowledge of Indians limited to cartoons and the stereotypes that sports fandom has reduced them to? Keeping things in the name of tradition is no defense. It’s the cultural equivalent of how annoyed we get whenever people refer to Cleveland as the city with the burning lake, or as the Mistake on the Lake. We know we’re more than that, yet that’s all people think of. Unfair? Prejudicial? Uhh, yep. We are possessive and protective of the narrative of Cleveland. Can you now possibly relate to how Indians might feel about their culture being appropriated and reduced to stale stereotypes?
I saw a new Blackhawks design by a native American artist that was very cool. Could we go in that direction with more of a blanket agreement? This is a good subject for next January when it can be approached with everyone’s attention and problem solving on it.
In today’s world, the Native Americans are all but forgotten. Call the logo racist. Change the team name. Erase the last link to the modern world. Let the Native Americans finish their slip into obscurity.
Sure there are tons of people with native American blood. I’m sure they all live in teepees and live off the land.
What about Thanksgiving? We should also abolish the holiday where we celebrate the day that the Native Americans slipped up and welcomed the white man into their country, ultimately leading to their demise. Come to think of it, the hand tracing of a turkey kids do is also racist. It’s not accuratly representative of the proud bird and they are drawn to celebrate the racist Thanksgiving holiday that was created by the white devil.
At least the Native Americans still have their racist Indian casinos, decorated in a tribal facade.
This is humanity.
STFU and deal with your own problems. Do what you have to do to sleep at night.
Laurie Cadwallader It would have been possible for the author to make his points without the insults, just as it would be possible for the Indians to remain the Indians while removing the insult.
All this coming from the guy who has a Twitter handle that is a derogatory term for Polish people… such a hypocrite
Regardless what one thinks of the logo, the red painted guys with the white teeth painted on look like something out of a horror film. Maybe the Indians are missing a Hollywood opportunity here. Promote a horror flick with Wahoo-painted zombies and ditch the logo permanently as part of a promotion.
You’re a turd. That sums it up. Everyone needs to get out of their f*ing feel bads. It’s a f*ing team name and a f*ing logo. Should I cry as a northerner about the prejudice name of the “Yankees”? I’m no Yankee but that’s what northerners were and still are called today and to me it hurts my feel bads. Where’s my petition? Where’s the riot for me? F* the progressive, we have to make everyone happy 24/7 political correct bull shit.
Suggestion: Transitioning from the Cleveland Indians and Chief Wahoo to the Cleveland Tribe with a feather and the block “C”. Establishes continuity of the team brand while negating the overt racist symbology.
This is just hysterical I was born and raised in the great city of Cleveland Ohio in 1972 is when my life began I have never been more proud of my great City and our sports teams the Browns the Cavs and the World Series Cleveland Indians as for Chief Wahoo he has been a part of this organization since 1901 and you millennials with your safe spaces oh everyone wins a trophy can go to hell take a poll of every single Native American in America and if the majority of them say it’s offensive and it needs to go then get rid of it but until then let Chief Wahoo run wild Note 2 ever wrote this article what is throwing something in about Trump have to do with the Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo logo you moron oh that’s right did Hillary Clinton pay you to say something about Chief Wahoo scumbag
The professional sports tripwire is Dan Snyder……if/when his franchise makes a change, the other leagues ambling under the long shadow of the NFL will follow suit.
Jeffrey Ahrendt I agree the subject is worth a CIVIL discussion among mature people without insults and name calling! I am sick of the negativity…as the saying goes, negativity breeds negativity. When people are attacked, they dig in their heals and go on the defense. It absolutely does NOT promote an open-minded discussion.
Don’t we have bigger more important issues in our country than the name of a baseball team? Maybe instead of people taking offense to it they should consider it an honor that people respect and honor it and aren’t making fun.
We have a dibocle of a presidential race going on that truly makes our country a laughing stock and this is what we debate over. People have too much time on there hands.
We have starving people in this country namely children. Maybe put your energy toward something like that instead of into something that has been around in honor for a very long time…not as to make fun of others but to represent a team and this should be an honor to those not taken as being made fun of.
Everyone in this country could claim racism at one point in time or another. If we would stop all this nonsense and realize it happens to all of us. Grow up and learn how to deal with it.
Just like every kid should win an award…NO…we need to learn there are disappoints in life and there is a winner and looser and then they will be better prepared to handle life.
Get OVER all of it!!!!
THE MEASURE OF WHETHER SOMETHING IS RACIST IS WHETHER EVERY INDIVIDUAL WHITE PERSON HAS EXPRESSED AN OPINION THAT THE THING IS RACIST. UNLESS EVERY WHITE PERSON SAYS SOMETHING IS RACIST, IT CAN’T BE RACIST, YOU SILLY GOOSES. HOW DO I TURN OFF ALL CAPS??? REMEMBER GUNSMOKE?? WHAT A GREAT SHOW. I MISS NIXON.
All this is is a pathetic white liberal slacktivist attempt at feeling significant. 90% of natives don’t care. Look it up.
JMASITTO, The name was changed in 1915 — pretty much thanks to a campaign by The PD — to “honor” Louis Sockalexis. He played 96 games here and once jumped out a second-story window, likely while drunk.
The logo was added in 1947, commissioned by Bill Veeck and designed by a teenager. The team has worn Wahoo on their caps 1954-57, 1962, and since 1986 — literally 36 seasons, less than one-third of its history.
I like Wahoo, and I still buy Wahoo apparel, but only because the Block C is a terrible logo. If you’re going to make an argument, make sure your facts are right.
RIGHT WING BUZZWORD BINGO!!! READ EM N WEEP!! I had racist, hypocrite, politically correct, and a wildcard for a misspelled word and BAM!! SLACKTIVIST FOR THE WIN!!
DON’T STEP ON SNAKE!!
how many more people need to die over the Indians logo? Please stop the insanity
Racist, ignorant, deplorable Red Sambo… ass-backward, fearful, Trumpian…Jesus H. Christ in the morning, Vince…it’s bad enough SCENE has beaten this dead horse into dogfood and glue for YEARS now…but can’t you just fucking do it. without all the insults?
Get real…if Wahoo is banned from the Tribe’s “teepee”…as high-roller, former bar owner, longtime season ticket holder Jim Stamper calls it from the front row with his ugly signs…will they ban it from being worn in the ballpark? Will the PC police arrest anyone who shows it on the streets of Cleveland?
Wahoo will be around for another twenty years, even if another T-shirt or hat is never produced. And not just because of the Boomer geezers who’ve worn it for a lifetime. Plenty of younger folks don’t like being told what NOT to wear…hey, are you listening, MetroHealth?… or how to think.
Fuck the PC minority…the vocal ten percent…and fuck the Millennial assholes who see this as yet another cause. Stick the unoriginal block C up your collective wazoos. The more you criticize him, the tighter I wrap my Wahoo merch around myself. And I’m a die-hard liberal about everything else. Go figure, huh? This issue just tends to piss me off…always has…always will.
Chuckles the Clown
This article is spot-on. I’ve been a Tribe fan for about thirty years, but I’ve refused to buy team memorabilia for much of it due to the disgusting Chief Wahoo logo and, to a slightly lesser extent, the team name. I think both should go. I own one Tribe shirt and if/when I wear it, I make sure that horrific logo is completely covered. I’m a Clevelander, so of course I’m excited by the success of our team, but I don’t see myself buying tickets or team merch any time soon. GO [insert appropriate team name here]!!
Too many lawsuits– I love my Tribe too! we all know change is likely coming. Just throwing my idea out there…
RUSTBELT-era
Name CLEVELAND BOLTS/SPARKS
LOGO- A GEAR with the Letter “C” shaped like a BOLTinside the gear w/ SPARKS coming up from the gear in the shape of a Feather. Look is similar to our logo now and should not be offensive to anyone.
The redskins and indians should keep their logos. I am a fan of both Major League Baseball and the NFL and im also a native american and i see teams like the redskins and the indians as a tribute or a celebration of my people and the “warrior” culture. I am not, nor have i ever known any native americans that are offended by this, it seems to only be the same recreationally offended virtue signaling white people that are offended at everything, all the time that have a problem with this. Please, just stop. We dont need you to be offended on our behalf. Enough already
my problem w/ changing the logo is the big block C, we are not Cincinnati, i don’t want their logo, i don’t like their logo, ok, you want to get rid of the chief, then come up w/ a logo. a feather w/ a the script I in our script logo now. or a script C, something decent. but you can not take our logo and expect us to say oh yoy , we’re the cleveland ugly block C’s. and their is nothing racist about the name Indian. i live near a reservation, i know Indians, guess what they have Indian’s jackets, w/ chief wahoo on them. but whatever..the guys i’ve talked to say…it’s not like we call ourselves the christopher columbuses, then i can see them having a problem w/ us.
It’s time to move on Cleveland, you new team name is the Cleveland Engines, Lots of trains running through area, come up with a nice logo to match.
“Vincethepolack” for your handle? Seriously? And you’re talking about ignorance and red-face and the right thing to do? Pretty ironic stuff.
One thing’s for sure: If I wanted to be a twit on Twitter, I certainly wouldn’t be calling myself “chucklestheheeb”….
Chuckles the Clown.