Cleveland is going to drop drop Chief Wahoo
Well, the Indians’ name isn’t going anywhere yet; nonetheless, it was a coup for MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to finally force Cleveland owner Paul Dolan’s hand to shed the racist and offensive logo, Chief Wahoo, from the uniforms in 2019.
It was disgusting to see, whether you were at Progressive Field, or walking along hallways to visitor’s clubhouses in baseball, and see the cartoonish caricature of the smiling Native American that originated in the racist and offensive of times in this country.
Indians to remove Chief Wahoo logo from uniforms in 2019 Sure, stripping a team logo off its uniform isn’t about to change racism in this country, but at least now we don’t have to be offended every time we see a Cleveland uniform.
Dolan denied there was any threats to have the All-Star Game removed if he didn’t strip Chief Wahoo from their uniforms beginning in 2019, but if Manfred didn’t pressure him, we might have been stuck with this caricature for another 75 years.
“While we recognize many of our fans have a long-standing attachment to Chief Wahoo, I’m ultimately in agreement with Commissioner Manfred’s desire to remove the logo from our uniforms in 2019.” Dolan insists there are no plans to change the team’s nickname, but hopefully that will occur one day, too, just as high schools and universities throughout the country have changed their nicknames and representations of Native Americans.
Common sense would have told Dolan to cease and desist displaying the Wahoo caricature on their uniforms years ago.