Today I would like to discuss a controversial topic that has been put on the back burner lately in society and that is sports teams that use Indian tribes and symbols as their logo or team name. We discussed this last week in class and it brought up quite a few arguments for and against. Now I'm not here to say whether I am for or against it, but I do see both sides. If anything I am undecided on the matter. First to have a team name such as the Washington Redskins can be offensive, especially to the Native American population. Some Indians refer to the term redskin as the equivalent to using the "N" word. Personally i believe if that is the case, I think something should be done about the team name. I know the common argument is that the team does not want to lose money over it, but there were plenty of colleges team such Miami, OH who changed their names to the Redhawks and they did not see a decrease in revenue. Last week on Around the Horn Bill Palaschke won face time and during it he spoke of a hearing coming up against the Redskins. There was a group fighting for them to change their names. I thought it was kinda cool because we had just talked about the subject in class and here it was in the news the next day.
There are other teams out there like the Cleveland Indians who are under fire to change their name as well. I don't see what is so offensive in using the work Indian in a sports name. I do not think it is derogatory in anyway. The only thing that looks bad is the chief wahoo pictured on most of their merchandise. All these teams are under scrutiny to change their team names when that has created a lot of tradition and history in the ball club and its fans. If the Cleveland Indians were to change their name, Does that mean all the history before they changed their name is gone? or is converted into the new name? I think a good example is the Indians recently changed their stadium name from Jacobs field to Progressive field. In my mind, since i grew up watching the Indians in the 90's, it will forever be the Jake to me and other Tribe fans i have talked to. It almost feels like your taking a part of the history away. It would have been different, had they built a new stadium and named it Progressive field.
To conclude, I don't really see a clear cut solution anytime soon. Both sides have great arguments of why they do or do not think the team should change their name. It will eventually come down to the legal process and the leagues themselves to take action. Until that happens it is going to be a debate.
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I am glad that you can see both sides of this debate, for starters. I want to address the question that you raised when you posed this question: "If the Cleveland Indians were to change their name, Does that mean all the history before they changed their name is gone?" That is a great question! The thing you need to remember is that before the Cleveland franchise became known as the "Indians," they were the "Spiders," the "Blues," the "Naps," and the "Forest Citys." But because most of us were not alive when the team was known by all of those different names, that does not mean that the tradition of this franchise has not been carried forward. The bottom line for me is whether the name and/or logo are offensive. And if they are, then they should be changed.
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