On my way into Opening Day to watch the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox in an exciting, offensive game, I passed a line of Native Americans quietly protesting. I looked at their signs, "We are NOT Honored" and looked down at my T-Shirt proudly displaying the comical, silly looking Chief Wahoo logo that the Indians have been using for decades.
My mother has already voiced her displeasure in the use of this logo and refuses to buy any merchandise that uses it. I have long thought I should do the same. I would like to stand for things like that. But in the end I continued to wear and display the logo.
On one extreme, people feel the name "Indians" alone is an insult. Throw in the clown face and it is just plain wrong in their mind. The other end of the spectrum says, "get over it!" Who cares? It's a name, a picture. And the name is supposed to be a positive name. You don't name your team something you would use as an insult or harmful term. So take it as a compliment.
Then you have this guys: A guy behind me started making the woo woo woo sound with his hand over his mouth in an obvious mockingly fashion. This was followed by the tomahawk chop and FSU or Atlanta Brave chant. I thought this was just plain classless regardless of where you stand.
Who am I to say whether the logo is insulting or not? The people it represents are the ones who should have the say, right? So if they do not like it, it should be discarded. And apparently they do have a problem with it.
I can't say I personally have a problem with the name, "Indians." But I think I will try to stop buying merchandise with the logo. Their are plenty of good apparel and hats with the script I, or C or word Indians.
And I have the loud "yip" sound I like to make during exciting parts of games that I now worry people will mistake for a mocking Indian sound. I don't mean it in that manner, it is just a loud sound I make like whistling or yelling. So what do I do about that?
