What a glorious time to be a sports fan. Football on both sides of the border is in full swing, the NHL season has opened, the NBA gets going in just a few weeks and, best of all, the baseball post-season gives us baseball for more than 8 hours a day.
Speaking as a baseball fan and Yankees-hater I would normally be pulling for any team taking on the Bronx Bombers and I’d be fantasizing that A-Rod will do his typical October nosedive. But watching Cleveland hammer the Yankees last night only gave me the smallest dose of pleasure.
That’s because I loathe the Cleveland Indians logo. I kinda hate the team name, as well, and support First Nations activists who have tried to convince the Washington Redskins, the Chicago Black Hawks, the Atlanta Braves and the Florida State Seminoles to cease and desist with the disrespect of First Nations tribes.
The Seminoles, in particular, are taking heat for their post-touchdown celebrations featuring a variation on a sacred war dance. And thank the spirits that Atlanta didn’t make the post-season because that tomahawk chop and the imitation of native war cries are unbelievably obnoxious. I remember watching Jane Fonda doing the chop while she attended games on the arm of then-husband Ted Turner. What was she thinking? I thought she had a few radical bones in that body of hers.
But at least the Florida, Chicago, Atlanta and Washington teams sport logos that don’t suck up to the stereotype. The Chicago logo could even be said to have some semblance of dignity. But the grinning “Injun” on the Cleveland uniform – a throwback to the bad old cigar store Indian images – is way over the top. It’s unbelievable to me that Major League Baseball continues to allow teams to be so hopelessly insensitive to a minority people.
The Alabama Uncle Toms? The Osaka Slants? Nobody would tolerate anything like that.
The Cleveland Indians’ logo is the equivalent. Get rid of it and show some respect.
