A Change in the Culture: Indians’ leave Chief Wahoo in the Past

There have been numerous requests over the years for sports teams to change their mascots or team logos due to its offensive portrayal of certain cultures and audiences in the United States.
Chief Wahoo, a logo of the Cleveland Indians professional baseball organization, had been scrutinized in wake of racial tensions around the country.
It was announced January 29th that the cartoon image of a Native American would be dissociated with the club after next season. This sentiment has met two dominant stances on the issue, one of tolerance and one of intolerance.
Since the outing of Donald Sterling and the eventual selling of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team years ago, there has been a sense of urgency from many in the sports community concerning social injustice. The growing awareness of athletes in the sports world has led to more advocates using their platforms to raise awareness.
It has also been a major topic of discussion in the NFL on whether or not the Washington Redskins pro football team should change their name and mascot as well. This conversation has led to zero changes from the Redskins’ owner, Dan Snyder, who has a taken a stance of neutrality on the issue of his teams’ name.
On the other hand, Dolan has decided that his baseball team would take a stand on what many perceive to be racially insensitive slurs being paraded around by sports franchises and has decided to stop the use of their Native American mascot.
MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, spoke about the decision of Dolan to strip the image of Chief Wahoo from Indians uniforms and merchandise, stating, “Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion through the game [of baseball].”
According to Dolan, making the decision to change a very recognizable mascot is not one that was made lightly. “We have consistently maintained that we are cognizant and sensitive to both sides of the discussion. While we recognize many of our fans have a long-standing attachment to Chief Wahoo, I’m ultimately in agreement with Manfred’s desire to remove the logo from our uniforms in 2019, said Dolan.”
This in itself speaks to what many consider to be in-the-closet racism and how it has been ingrained into society.
Everett Mitchell, a junior Therapeutic Recreations major from Chicago, IL, acknowledged during his reaction that we live in a developing world that is becoming more racially and culturally considerate. “I felt like it was only a matter of time. Pretty much all Native American heritage thing that they [Native Americans] felt was offensive is going to change.”
Racial insensitivity is becoming less and less acceptable in American culture.
The issue of racism in our country today has not been as prominent in the mainstream media since the Civil Rights Movement took place almost half-a-century ago.
Since then, there has been a more opportunistic environment for minorities in this country. Nurtured individuals are now determined to open doors for improved race relations on numerous platforms, including those of professional sports.
These tensions are not going to be eased by the changing of a sports logo, and those in favor of the old Chief Wahoo are not going to be persuaded by Dolan to stand hand in hand with minorities in the country. At the same time, all great houses are built one brick at a time.
With Dolan, a wealthy, caucasian male making the conscious decision to take a stand against social injustice causes that had nothing to do with him directly is proof for all that empathy for their fellow man is a real thing and has the potential to move mountains.