So.. there have been debates about this that I've seen lately.. what are peoples' feelings? There are people who are Native American and genuinely do think the name should be changed. I have friends who are a part of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut who have said they hate that the name is being changed. One of them had a family member who drew the mascot for a local high school who has the Indian as their mascot. They feel their voices aren't being heard while those who oppose it are being able to speak to the media. What one person said recently was that white people not associated with their tribe are able to speak for them and that their voices were heard louder than the actual tribe members. Whether you support or oppose the name change, what do you think about both sides at least getting to speak publicly?
Somebody at the Cleveland Indians proposed the name "Crackers"... A bunch of white people got really upset.
I think getting rid of it is fine.. I just think people of Native American descent should have the loudest voice regardless of their stance on the issue..
From a NewYork Times article of December 13, 2020: "The Cleveland baseball franchise has been known as the Indians since 1915, but Native American groups and others have for decades opposed the use of Indigenous names, mascots, and imagery for sports teams, insisting they are demeaning and racist." This change takes care of the Cleveland MLB franchise, but keep in mind that the official name of each team includes the place name. As baseball's Yogi Berra once famously said: "It ain't over 'til it's over." It ain't anywhere near over. Read on, and be careful what you ask for. Braves? Still problematic even without naming the place. Chicago? Yes, Indigenous, and two teams include that demeaning content in their names - both gotta go. Minnesota? Indigenous. Milwaukee? Yes, that too. Miami? Ditto, but that team could revert to being named the Florida Marlins - the Spanish don't seem to mind. Tampa Bay? The "Tampa" part has to go; they could be the Bay Rays. How about Kansas City? Yep, "Kansas" is thoroughly Indigenous also. Surely not Seattle? I'm afraid so. But not Texas? Yes, the Rangers part can stay, but "Texas" has to go - too native, too demeaning, too racist. Arizona, Spanish, right? Nope, where do you think the Spanish got the name? Sorry, it's indigenous and not from Spain. Couldn't the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox use "Illinois" in their team names in place of the racist part? Nice try, but not gonna work - French spelling, but Indigenous name. They could use "Cook County" in their names, I suppose, as long as Daniel Cook's descendants don't mind, nor the English from whence the Cook name comes. The Detroit Tigers ballclub is in the clear, right? No, it can't quite pass for French. Detroit is a French word for strait, but the full name is “le détroit du Lac Érié," and the Erie are the Native American tribe for whom the lake is named. This one also must be tossed into the wastebin of history or placed in a museum of racist tropes, but it can't continue as a team name. I don't see this being resolved anytime soon even within MLB, but it'll be a boon to the English-only-movement crowd who'd like to rename the 29 of the 50 states whose names are of various non-English origins, many of those 29 being Indigenous. Vermont? Too French. Colorado? Too Spanish. Rhode Island? Named after the Greek Island Rodos. Mississippi? Does that look English to you? Yep, 29 of the 50. That's before moving on to counties, parishes, cities, townships, villages, burgs and hamlets, as well as bays, rivers, creeks, streams, mountains, bluffs, and hills.
The Cleveland Indians got rid of their goofy logo and the Washington Redskins are changing their name. I'm good with it. . .
Certainly, because the "Cleveland" part of that team's name isn't Indigenous. I already noted that. The Yankees, Red Sox and Giants, for example, are similarly inoffensive for the same reason - no part of their team names is Indigenous. However, many of the rest of the MLB franchises are still making a cruel mockery of America's First Peoples with their racist and demeaning Indigenous team names. You should be ashamed for defending them. All MLB and their franchises have to do is drop the Native names - "Minnesota Twins" is highly offensive; it's racist. You know this. "Twins" is not racist. It's very simple. Most Native Americans do not want Native American team names. The "Minnesota" part of the team name violates that simple principle. The Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland mostly to eliminate the continuing offensive and demeaning use of the "Kansas" part of the team's name. Now the As are fine; however, another team took their place and resumed use of the offensive name. When will people learn? It's two steps forward and one step back. Your suggestion of Gestapos is a non-starter, and don't go trying to rename them after Confederate generals either. Your suggestion would be doubly insulting and offensive, replacing one kind of racism with another.
The problem is that the team names have a demeaning or stereotypical name about some group. For many years, Orofino, Idaho named its team the “maniacs”.....really demeaning since a state mental hospital was located in Orofino. And place names can be offensive also. For a long time the Board of Geographical Names has been renaming places with offensive or inappropriate names, I’m familiar with the effort in the Northern Rockies. Hard to come up with some offensive derivation for Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Winnebago tho.
