What About the Indians?
I saw an interesting Tweet this morning. It sarcastically made a play at the whole Ozzie-Guillen-said-something-stupid thing that’s taken over the baseball media for the past 48 hours. Guillen’s mouth getting him in trouble is nothing new, but he went to whole new heights by saying he loved Fidel Castro.
Especially in Miami. Especially especially in Little Havana. Before I get into this, let me just say that I’m completely in agreement with the five-game suspension handed down by the powers that be in the Miami Marlins organization. And of course, Guillen was completely out of line with his comments.
But the aforementioned Tweet read something along the lines of (and I paraphrase from memory): “But let’s not worry about Chief Wahoo and the Indians logo. Or the tomahawk. Native Americans aren’t real people anyway.”
Hm…touche, anonymous Tweeter! Lost in the “don’t offend Cubans” debacle, has been the fact that baseball has completely ignored the complaints of Native Americans for years. This has been an ongoing issue in baseball for a long, long time. I’m completely 100 percent on the side of groups who campaign to have the offensive logos and traditions stopped. And here’s why:
The counter-arguments range anywhere from “they shouldn’t take offense, it’s just a silly thing” to “get over it, we won.” I won’t even justify the ignorance of the latter with a response. But the fact remains that it isn’t a silly thing. Native Americans aren’t being unreasonable with their requests.
It’s baseball that is being unreasonable. In the name of tradition and yearly revenue, you’re willing to completely ignore the fact that something you heavily market is offensive to a large majority of a certain culture? That’s ridiculous.
Sorry, Cleveland. I think the logo is cool and all, but it’s time to go. This is like making an awesome YouTube video with stolen music in the background. You knew it was going to get taken down, but it was pretty sweet while it lasted, huh?
If Ozzie Guillen is getting a five-game suspension for a couple stupid comments that ticked off Cubans, why can’t Major League Baseball afford to make a couple touch-ups to a logo that has been downright racist towards Native Americans for decades?
Three Up, Three Down 