A few years back the National Congress of American Indians posted a controversial photo of three baseball hats: the New York Jews, the San Francisco Chinamen, and the Cleveland Indians. The point was clear: a cartoonish, stereotypical depiction of any ethnic group gets offensively quickly. Now that the Indians are heading to the World Series, Major League Baseball finds itself at the center of this controversy: a lawsuit in Toronto during the ALCS forced MLB to issue a statement that “We would welcome a thoughtful and inclusive dialogue to address these concerns outside the context of litigation."
So let the thoughtful and inclusive dialogue begin. The Washington Post has already begun this discussion with opposing comments from a former Indians' executive, Mark Shapiro, and current Indians' first basement, Mike Napoli. Shapiro, now with the Toronto Blue Jays' front office, says that the logo "personally bothers" him. While he and current members of the Cleveland front office won't drop the Chief Wahoo logo entirely, there has been a trend towards using the letter "C" on Indians' hats in recent seasons. It won't be long before Chief Wahoo is removed from Cleveland's uniforms entirely.
Just to be clear, Mike Napoli's statement that "they've been the 'Indians' for a long time" has nothing to do with Chief Wahoo. The decision to make Cleveland's mascot "the Indians" is separate from the caricature at the center of the current controversy. While there's no guarantee that this debate will stop once the graphic logo changes, the reality is that "Indians" is not an offensive term per se: because the U.S. Constitution grants special status to "Indian tribes" and "Indians," tribal lawyers must rely on these geographically inaccurate descriptors in federal court to protect indigenous peoples' rights (I love the Louis C.K. bit on this topic).
The situation is very different when a sports mascot references an individual tribe. In those cases, the tribe ought to have final say whether the team can use their name. Hence, the University of North Dakota has dropped "Fighting Sioux" from their name, while Florida State remains connected to the actual Seminole Tribe of Florida. The more generic moniker "Indians" might not need anyone's permission to survive-- but only if Chief Wahoo disappears from Cleveland's hats and jerseys. Until then, Major League Baseball will continue facing serious questions about its commitment to modernizing a sport whose history will always be intertwined with the story of racial segregation in the United States.
P.S., We'll talk about the NFL team in Washington another day-- as soon as Dan Snyder wins his third(!) playoff game since purchasing the team in 1999, we can talk about how valuable his trademark really is these days...
