I guess racism just doesn’t matter when it comes from a last place team, right? How typical. How droll.

That one made me laugh out loud, late at night in a quiet house with family members sleeping.

Cleveland Sports free Town!

Its true. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard an oriole complain about the mascot. I don’t know but, maybe, its because the orioles weren’t subjected to genocide? Or, maybe, its because their birds?

Wahoo is a caricature with a history of racism behind it. Shouldn’t we discourage such things?

Chief Wahoo is not an inherently racist symbol. Chief Wahoo is a cartoon. He should be no more offensive to real American Indians than “The Bird” is to real Baltimore orioles, the “Philly Phanatic” is to real fans from Philadelphia, “Mister Red” is to real baseballs, “Bugs Bunny” is to real rabbits, and the “San Diego Chicken” is to real chickens. After all, these are not accurate representations either! Are these cartoons offensive? Should they be deemed “inappropriate,” “biased,” or even (gasp!) “hateful”? Of course not, how silly! (Wait ’til the starfish community catches a glimpse of Patrick from “Spongebob Squarepants.” I don’t want to be within a mile of that angry mob!)

The knee jerk reactionaries will undoubtedly say, “Well, YOU may not think that Wahoo should be offensive but the fact that Native Americans are offended remains.” True. They are still offended, and that’s too bad that they are willing to go through life being offended by a silly cartoon. As an American with Irish ancestry, am I to be offended by the depiction of my heritage on Lucky Charms boxes, South Bend campuses, and March 17th? Surely I could be. You’d think we were just a bunch of balding, fighting, raging alcoholics who wear green all the time, who all have red hair, who all seem to have an obsessive compulsion to wear a derby hat, and who are all very short, skinny, gangly, and somewhat uncoordinated.

To use the term “racist” to describe a team logo is to imply that there is a broad conspiracy in the front office to actively demean the group. It implies that they actually mean to subjugate a particular group of people. Ask yourself why they would develop their marketing strategies around a group of people they actively seek to put down (many of whom are potential customers and, thus, sources of revenue). Ask yourself what they stand to gain from propagating a message of hate. After all, team owners have a great deal of their own money invested in their franchise.

I would urge the American Indian community to remember that teams do not name themselves for cultures and ethnic communities for which they do not have a great deal of respect and admiration. They look for team names associated with pride, strength, and virility. There have been exactly ZERO teams named the “Pansies”, the “Nancy Boys”, the “Sissies”, or the “Broccoli Spears”. They choose “Indians”, “Braves”, “Ragin’ Cajuns”, “49ers”, “Fightin’ Irish”, “Trojans”, and many others because they are groups associated with positive qualities. Geez, who wants to root for the “Latent Apathetics”? I would also urge them to not seek fault or intent where there clearly is none. Indians fans are proud to associate themselves with the Native American community – even if it’s only through a silly baseball team. We’re proud of that name and we’re proud of the silly logo.

God hates Cleveland sports