Following years of protests from fans and Native American groups, the Cleveland Indians have decided to change their team name, moving away from a moniker that has long been criticized as racist, three people familiar with the decision said Sunday.
The move follows a decision by the Washington Football Team of the N.F.L. in July to stop using a name long considered a racial slur, and is part of a larger national conversation about race that magnified this year amid protests of systemic racism and police violence.
(The New York Times, December 13, 2020)
In fact, Native American leaders pleaded for decades for Cleveland’s baseball team to drop the racially offensive “Indians” from its name. Therefore, racism is inherent in Cleveland doing so only after white business leaders prevailed upon the owner of the Washington football team to drop the equally offensive “Redskins”.
Granted, both teams faced tremendous pressure to mend their ways in the wake of nationwide BLM protests following the killing of George Floyd. But, just as I knew Redskins couldn’t last, I knew Indians couldn’t either.
Here in part is how I predicted this day of reckoning in “Why is Washington Redskins any more acceptable than Washington Niggers … or Washington Hymies?” October 19, 2013:
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Indeed, can you imagine an NFL team today being called the Washington Niggers; or, given Snyder’s Jewish heritage, the Washington Hymies…?
And, despite vowing to ‘never change the name of the team’ – as Snyder is quoted saying in the May 10, 2013 edition of USA Today, I bet it’s only a matter of time before political and commercial pressure force him to do so.
Clearly whites did not enslave Native Americans the way they did Black Africans. But their genocidal killing of Native Americans and confiscatory plundering of their lands were arguably far worse. And granting them licenses to operate casinos on the little reservations Whites deigned to leave them hardly compensates for all that.
Therefore, the least Whites can do today is show them the same politically correct respect they show Blacks, no? Which is why it’s also only a matter of time before the Cleveland Indians (are forced to) drop the racial slur from their name too.
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To be fair, Cleveland maintained all these years that its nickname, which dates back to 1915, was intended to honor an “Indian” player. Except that the racist paternalism this reflects is almost too insidious for words. After all, this is like the Brooklyn Dodgers changing its name in 1947 to Brooklyn Niggers to honor Jackie Robinson.
Besides, no matter Cleveland’s initial intent, there’s no excusing its willful refusal to heed the cries of Native-American leaders – who made clear for decades that there was no honor in that name for millions of their people. Incidentally, if you’re wondering why Cleveland Indians is offensive but Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Chiefs are not, you’re probably too stupid to appreciate why Nigger and Negro are offensive but Black and African American are not.
Unsurprisingly, President Trump is decrying this change as a reflection of “cancel culture” run amok. But this is entirely consistent with his racist attempt to preserve the Confederate flag, Confederate statues, and other monuments to Jim Crow America. I duly mocked his stand in “While Tearing Down Confederates Monuments, the Washington Redskins’ Slur Cannot Stand” on July 3.
The inconvenient truth is that crying cancel culture in this case is just a juvenile way for grown men to bemoan the end of an overtly racist slight against Native Americans. This, just as crying political correctness is a juvenile way for these same men to bemoan prevailing demands to be polite and respectful in public discourse.
They clearly see these changes as nails in the coffin of the presumptions and privileges they enjoy, which stem from the legacy of racism in America. But these (predominantly white) men come across like Neanderthals howling against the sociopolitical evolution of humankind.
Related commentaries:
Redskins… George Floyd… BLM protests… Confederate monuments…