The Cleveland Baseball Team

[banjar]

I was on blowout and just went down the rabbit hole on their name-change thread. Wish I had that time back.

But there was one post with this - a guy with a microphone actually asking a few Navajos what they thought about this stuff:


On the other hand, an article yesterday from MLB says:

"Locally, the American Indian Movement of Ohio, the Lake Erie Professional Chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance and the Lake Erie Native American Council publicly advocated for a name change.

 

[WizardofOz1982]

I would also guess the team name was not chosen out of racism. Apparently it was chosen partly in tribute to Louis Sockalexis, a Native American player.

@WizardofOz1982 - if you don't mind the name or the logo, that's a reasonable opinion to have. I'm not going to be outraged on your behalf! Not that my opinion doesn't matter, but on this your opinion counts a lot more than mine.

Opinions in the Native communities are not unanimous on these things. I remember seeing this high school, on a reservation in northern Arizona, where the the school nickname was The Redskins:

Red Mesa High School - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But a lot of Native groups have been really outspoken in opposition to the name and logo, especially around the midwest. And I side with them - especially when it comes to the logo.

I absolutely agree about the Wahoo logo. There's just no way you can spin what with a current context as anything but racist.

You'll find as diverse a group of opinions about it in Native American tribes as you will something else in any other group. I think a good chunk of Native Americans have much more pressing concerns than whether or not a professional sports team's name could be considered disparaging or not. COVID is ravaging the Navajo. 80% of Natives live in poverty, etc.