Indians to abandon Chief Wahoo logo in 2019

[Marc the Habs Fan]

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[hotcabbagesoup]

The curse will lift.
The drought will end.
The Indians will be your 2018 World Series Champions.
Book it.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Good public relations decision, though the name isn't going anywhere (only professional team I could see changing their name is the Redskins). Chief Wahoo stood out as an expressly racist logo defended only by tradition. Although polls almost universally show that the majority of indigenous Americans (and Canadians) aren't bothered by the names, and instead think media attention should be on actual day-to-day issues, even that couldn't defend the logo.

Unfortunately we're going to be stuck with that generic capital case "C" for all eternity.

 

[hockeykicker]

jeez indians fans are beyond mad right now

 

[Neutrinos]

In an attempt to be more politically correct, the Cleveland Indians have just unveiled their new logo for the 2019 season:

I don't know about you guys, but I love it!

 

[Fenway]

Cleveland Indians Will Abandon Chief Wahoo Logo Next Year

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

I really hope they come up with a new logo. The capital C is one of the worst in sports. I understand that the chief is a racist logo but I feel somewhat conflicted about it because I actually like it when taken out of its context. Maybe something with a Native American style spear could work?

 

[Canes]

Why wait? I know they want to pay some advertising firm obscene money to come up with 20 different new iterations of a logo but you figure they could have done that this offseason.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Probably a bit overdue, even though i admit i kinda like the chief wahoo logo. The Indians have an obscure, like tertiary logo that is really nice but they don't use for some reason. I think it'd work as the new primary since it still fits with the team name;

Now that people got their wish, can we live the rest of the Indian-inspired teams sans the Redskins alone? Especially the Blackhawks, best uniforms in sports imo.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Seems like a bad decision at face value. Baseball teams don't have much more going for them than tradition. Most people who have a problem with the logo were never going to be your customers anyway.

 

[v-man]

Simply idiotic. It's a cartoon, a caricature. There's nothing more or less racist about it than the Notre Dame Fighting Irishman or the Padre's swinging monk. The name itself is a tribute to the first Native player on the team (and in major pro baseball I believe), who was so good and domineering in his time that they named the latter incarnation of the team after his old nickname. I for one am definitely picking up a few Wahoo caps before they disappear. Haven't had one since the early 90s.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Probably a bit overdue, even though i admit i kinda like the chief wahoo logo. The Indians have an obscure, like tertiary logo that is really nice but they don't use for some reason. I think it'd work as the new primary since it still fits with the team name;

Now that people got their wish, can we live the rest of the Indian-inspired teams sans the Redskins alone? Especially the Blackhawks, best uniforms in sports imo.

Yeah, I like that a lot. I mean it's still a bit bland colour wise but the premise of it is great.

 

[Canes]

Seems like a bad decision at face value. Baseball teams don't have much more going for them than tradition. Most people who have a problem with the logo were never going to be your customers anyway.

The fact baseball has far less concerns about CTE (Ryan Freel and a few others compared to god knows how many in the NFL and other contact sports) and the fact that the MLB players union makes the NFL's look like a joke probably means a lot more than tradition long term.

Only some Indians fans and a small minority of people who take offense to things like sports teams trying not to offend anyone will care. Most true Indians fans won't care or will get over it quickly.

 

[MMC]

Honestly, if they're going to do this they should just rebrand altogether.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Simply idiotic. It's a cartoon, a caricature. There's nothing more or less racist about it than the Notre Dame Fighting Irishman or the Padre's swinging monk. The name itself is a tribute to the first Native player on the team (and in major pro baseball I believe), who was so good and domineering in his time that they named the latter incarnation of the team after his old nickname. I for one am definitely picking up a few Wahoo caps before they disappear. Haven't had one since the early 90s.

Caricature is why it's a problem. Caricature's are by their definitions stereotypes, and are offensive in the context of groups who have been historically discriminated against. For the most part, the brunt of the criticism against the Indians has been towards Chief Wahoo and not the name. Part of that comes form the fact that in the US, "Indian" is very commonly an accepted term used by indigenous communities in the United States (in Canada, not so much, where aboriginal or indigenous are the accepted terms). So I can get the argument to keep it, and I imagine like the Blackhawks, attention is going to not be on Cleveland after this logo is dropped.

Chief Wahoo on the other hand wasn't meant to honour anyone. It's a stereotype of a people that were disadvantaged and discriminated upon when the logo was created, and it's a stereotype of a people that are disadvantage and discriminated upon today. That is the key difference (but certainly not the only one) between Chief and the Fighting Irishman. While Irish have been historically discriminated upon in the US (mostly because they were Catholic), they weren't when the name was conceived, and it was created by a Catholic university with strong Irish roots, either to honour Irish-American soldiers or Irish freedom fighters back in Ireland. Big difference from a bunch of old white guys saying it was to honour Native Americans, but receiving no input from them.

The Monk isn't comparable because it's not a people, it's a profession.

 

[robert terwilliger]

the whole thing is political.

mlb wants it gone for the pr. they couldn't give less of a shit about the public backlash but it lets them score some easy pr points with people who get offended by cartoons.

the indians want the all-star game, mlb publicly said they weren't sure about the logo and the all-star game being there in 19. the indians get to hock a bunch of junk to rubes and then start selling it locally only before they get to cash in on new uniform sales.

 

[Evincar]

This sucks. I love the Chief Wahoo logo. Guess its time to stock up on merch...

 

[Cheese Wagstaff]

Norte Dame isn't the Irish equivalent of Chief Wahoo. The Irish equivalent would be if the Irish Famine killed a few million more Irish, then the British pushed the few remaining Irish to the most desolate parts of Ireland. Then hundreds of years laters, while the Irish were living in abject poverty as a practically invisible minority group a bunch of English soccer teams started using the Notre Dame cartoon as a mascot. In that case I would argue that the English probably shouldn't use the Irish as mascots either.

 

[Machinehead]

Sort of an iconic logo at this point, but the right choice.

Good for them.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Sucks to see it go but these are the times we live in.

Hopefully they come up with something new and don't just keep using that stupid boring generic C.

 

[Bon Esprit]

I just ordered a baseball cap. though the Injuns ain't my favourte team. WTF?
Redskins, Braves and Blackhaws next?

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

I just ordered a baseball cap. though the Injuns ain't my favourte team. WTF?
Redskins, Braves and Blackhaws next?

Redskins will be the topic. I don't think there is anything offensive from the Braves, Blackhawks, or Chiefs (though I really didn't think Chief Wahoo was offensive, either).

 

[bleedblue1223]

The whole thing kinda seems half-assed to me. If you are someone that thinks the logo should go, you probably also think the name should change. Either stick with both or change the name too. I don't really respect the trying to appease everyone mentality.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

How about the 'Cleveland Engines'? That way it still sounds like the racist way of saying 'Indians' and you could come up with a cool train logo or something. WIN WIN.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Braves did have the most offensive mascot I can think of. Look up pics of Homer from the 80's. Yeesh. They later changed it to the generic baseball head, thank God.

They also had Chief Knock-a-Homa back then as well, but I believe he was portrayed by an actual Native American.