Cleveland Indians to become the Guardians

[Canes]

I still maintain they should have renamed themselves the Cuyahoga River Fire

 

[ponder719]

I still maintain they should have renamed themselves the Cuyahoga River Fire

They'd prefer to pay tribute to that incident through their play, apparently.

 

[PanthersPens62]

 

[Troy McClure]

And they got rid of it. Ta - da problem solved.

Also this logo needs removed:

and this one:

And this one:

Always love a nonsense slippery slope argument.

 

[lowol]

Unfortunately this weak choice is going to fuel the movement against changing derogatory team imagery, as evidenced by this thread.

The history behind the Fighting Irish and friends is not devoid of negative stereotyping but it way pales in comparison to the case of the Indians which literally used a massacred and still oppressed people as a mascot.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

And they got rid of it. Ta - da problem solved.

Also this logo needs removed:

The Fighting Irish was (and still kind of is) the sports club representing the Irish-American and Catholic American communities.

 

[N o o d l e s]

Why was it past time to make the change? It's utterly stupid.

Redskins was grossly offensive.

Indians? Come on. It's utterly ridiculous.

Better change the Fighting Irish, Highlanders, Vikings, Celtics, Knicks, Yankees, Canucks, Canadiens, etc....

Gotta change em all now. No ethnicity allowed.

Bunch of sweet shit this nonsense has become

I mean the problem there is that “Indians” aren’t actually…..Indian

 

[Troy McClure]

The Fighting Irish was (and still kind of is) the sports club representing the Irish-American and Catholic American communities.

Right, the Irish people there gave themselves that name.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Right, the Irish people there gave themselves that name.

Maybe they were all drunk when they voted on it?

 

[Blitzkrug]

It's a wonder how we have all these people post in this thread who don't actually watch baseball and are just here to whine about their perceived victim status.

Pound sand.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And they got rid of it. Ta - da problem solved.

Also this logo needs removed:

and this one:

And this one:

I will repeat — there is no way the Indians could walk Chief Wahoo back to “respecting the culture”.

Could the logos above be interpreted as respecting the culture, or at worst an in-joke among the people OF that culture? Yes they could.

Some people would argue that any mascot depicting a group of people is inherently problematic. I wouldn’t make that argument. Hell, I’ll even go to bat for the Blackhawks. But the Indians and Chief Wahoo were just blatant, blatant racism and there’s no other serious interpretation to be considered.

It could only have existed in a society where a bit of “light racism” was viewed as not-problematic. We are no longer living in that society.

 

[Richard]

I will repeat — there is no way the Indians could walk Chief Wahoo back to “respecting the culture”.

Could the logos above be interpreted as respecting the culture, or at worst an in-joke among the people OF that culture? Yes they could.

Some people would argue that any mascot depicting a group of people is inherently problematic. I wouldn’t make that argument. Hell, I’ll even go to bat for the Blackhawks. But the Indians and Chief Wahoo were just blatant, blatant racism and there’s no other serious interpretation to be considered.

It could only have existed in a society where a bit of “light racism” was viewed as not-problematic. We are no longer living in that society.

The mascot was racist, the name Indians isnt racist-period

 

[Troy McClure]

The mascot was racist, the name Indians isnt racist-period

Oh. You said period. Guess we'll have to tell all of those Native Americans they are wrong.

 

[southsideIrish]

It's hard to weigh in on this in a neutral manner, but as I said when they announced a year ago they'd make a change, I have a co worker who is half Native American, and he's against this. The cartoon logo, yes, he didn't like that, and was glad when it was removed. But the name he's not. I've seen many similar opinions online, and he's concerned that good names like Indians, Braves, Blackhawks (which for decades has had the support of the Sauk tribe but for some reason people keep saying is "offensive"), Chiefs and others will disappear simply because they are Native American.

Chiefs is the same kind of thing as Generals, Admirals, and so on. Honorable. Same with Braves which are warriors. But he's concerned yet another piece of his or culture may vanish just to satisfy the current trend.

And where does it end? Does "Indiana" change its name, or the countless cities, counties, rivers, etc. in the US that are based on historic Native names? Do those all get erased too? What about the countless team names that use other cultures or societies as names? How about Pirates, Buccaneers, or Vikings? These were real groups of people that murdered, raped, etc. in their history. We're ok with those? I could list dozens more.

I totally agree with my friend on the Redskins, or the Indians cartoon logo, those needed to be changed. But the line has to be drawn somewhere. And one has to ask what have all these pc moves done to improve things? Nothing. If anything things are worse than ever.

 

[kingsholygrail]

So they're ripping off the Angels?

 

[hockey20000]

eh i liked the name indians better... could of just got rid of the logo if it offened people and kept the name.

 

[Albatros]

Only changing the logo would have been too little too late. Sad that they didn't go with the Spiders, that would have really enabled a striking new team identity. The Guardians is meh.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

I have no idea how to feel about that.

That logo is terrible.

They should have went with Spiders.

 

[Prominence Problem]

I may have had a left-handed cigarette earlier today and seen this breaking news. I just woke up from a nap and seen it really is real.

Oh my

 

[kihei]

Just glad that Cleveland finally found a new name. It was a big deal and now it is a done deal. On to the Olympics....

 

[The Burdened]

Oh. You said period. Guess we'll have to tell all of those uppity liberal white people they are wrong.

FTFY

 

[weaponomega]

FTFY

What exactly did you fix? Disliking racist terms makes an uppity liberal? Does that make you a racist conservative?

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I would have preferred recycling the name Barons from the city's former hockey teams. As well, incorporating the colors of the Browns and Cavs into their scheme (while replacing the current shade of red with wine), as a way of celebrating the entire sports history of Cleveland.

I still have hope that the Braves will change their name to the Thrashers and use the former NHL team's look almost verbatim.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

In fact, perhaps the Guardians name won't stop my team colors proposal from being realized. The color proposal is there because I want the team to have much better-looking uniforms than they do now - with alternates for every color the team would use under my proposal.

Similarly, the Braves becoming the Thrashers would open the door for alternates in every color once used by the NHL team and to be used by the MLB team.

 

[Know Your Enemy]

Insanity apparently knows no bounds these days.

It's insane to change the name of a team that has offended native americans for decades? I'd hate to live in your world