Chief Wahoo Curses Cleveland Yet Again

[CLEVELandMILIDH]

Harvey Wasserman, Author, SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth

Posted: July 16, 2010 11:15 AM

 

Chief Wahoo Curses Cleveland Yet Again

 

Another tomahawk has sailed into the hearts of Cleveland sports fans. Is it the work of Chief Wahoo, the most racist logo in all of sports?

 

Has the ridiculous, buck-toothed profoundly offensive caricature of a single-feathered native poked yet another hole Cleveland's soul?

 

Mark Welsh, part Ho-de-no-sau-nee (Iroquois) and part Lakota (Sioux) might say so.Mark is a mainstay of the native community in Ohio's capital. For years he's joined other activists when the season opens in Cleveland. They picket in protest of a cartoon they find deeply offensive.

 

In response, Cleveland Indian fans throw beer at them.

 

It's time to reconsider.

 

The departure of LeBron James from the Cavaliers is a death blow. Barring a miracle, no major sports franchise in this tough, depressed lake town has even a remote shot at a league title in the near future.

 

Not since the glory days of the football Browns and their great running back, Jim Brown, has there been a champion in Cleveland.The Browns and Cavs have both threatened since. The Indians twice came within a run of winning the World Series.

 

The details are too heartbreaking to recount.

 

How about a name change? How about dumping that logo? How about a pow wow with the native community to find a new spirit and image? Renamings have become a welcome, long overdue trend in college sports.

 

It'd give Cleveland something -- ANYTHING!!! -- to talk about beside LeBron's jump to the beach.

 

While at Syracuse, Jim Brown played Lacrosse with the great Ho-de-no-sau-nee spiritual leader Oren Lyons. Let's get him and Jim together, organize a transformation of the name, face and soul of Cleveland baseball, and move on. A public renaming would be a magnificent gesture at a time like this. An act of contrition, and of grace.

 

Our nation's capital could then strip the "Redskins" off that football team, an unconscionable epithet in this day and age.

 

Along the way, of course, we'd like to see communities finally own the sports teams whose billionaire speculators demand free stadiums, huge tax breaks and the right to abuse the fans who love them with reckless abandon.

 

But in the meantime ... how about it, Cleveland? ... let's bury Chief Wahoo! We can be absolutely certain that whatever comes next will be better.

 

Mitakuye Oyasin.

[TheClevelandSound]

I like the name. Its been that name since the Cleveland Blues in 1901. Keep it.

 

Get over it. I know we treat(ed) Native Americans like shit, but the name should stay.

[CLEVELandMILIDH]

I dont understand whats offensive about it, other than our team....haha.... it should be an honor.

[CLEVELandMILIDH]

Do people protest the New York Yankee's or the Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Eskimos, West Virginia Mountaineers, Ole Miss Rebels, New Orleans Saints, Washington Redskins, Notre Dame Fighting Irish......I dont get it

[djdawg2010]

Anything for people to bitch about I guess.

[Browns57]

I feel dumber for actually having read that article. I think the article itself is much more offensive then chief wahoo or the name Indians.

 

And why is this article even here.

 

Shouldn't this be on a baseball forum, or never written, or something............?

 

See I told you I felt dumber after reading it!

 

 

[CLEVELandMILIDH]

I feel dumber for actually having read that article. I think the article itself is much more offensive then chief wahoo or the name Indians.

 

And why is this article even here.

 

Shouldn't this be on a baseball forum, or never written, or something............?

 

See I told you I felt dumber after reading it!

 

Its the off-season and I'm tired of talking about Roethlisberger butt rapping little girls and LeBron's ego. If you got something to change it up thats fresh start a more interesting topic.

[Alo]

This may be the worst case ever for getting rid of Chief Wahoo. The first two paragraphs will piss off any Cleveland sports fan, so there's no way the rest of it can be convincing.

[shepwrite]

By the way, I'm 1/8th Cherokee. My dad's grandma was full breed Cherokee in Kentucky.

 

I understand how calling a team "The Indians" and especially "The Redskins" is like calling a team, "The Negroes" or "The Tarbabies." It's reducing a race to a mascot, like an animal.

 

On the other hand, I have a really cool, weathered, faded Indians cap with Wahoo on it... and while it doesn't offend me, as a fractional who doesn't really connect the two, I sure as hell wouldn't wear it to a reservation meeting. It's confusing to me, honestly. I get how it's offensive but over the years it's ceased to mean anything about Native Americans to me.

 

Frankly, I'd be cool with removing any references to a race as a mascot unless it's flattering, like "Warriors" or a matter of literal pride, like Chippewas or Seminoles. They tend to pay honor the people rather than turn them into caricatures.

 

Redskins is obviously the worst. "Indians" is so generic that it is reductive, like "Negroes" as a mascot. Yet, yeah... it would be really weird to change it.

 

That said, that team could use a farging enema.

[CLEVELandMILIDH]

This is what Clyde Bellecourt, the director of the American Indian Movement had to say:

 

"It's the behavior that accompanies all of this that's offensive. The rubber tomahawks, the chicken feather headdresses, people wearing war paint and making these ridiculous war whoops with a tomahawk in one hand and a beer in the other-all of these have significant meaning for us. And the psychological impact it has, especially on our youth, is devastating"

[SJ_Browns]

I understand how calling a team "The Indians" and especially "The Redskins" is like calling a team, "The Negroes" or "The Tarbabies." It's reducing a race to a mascot, like an animal.

 

Frankly, I'd be cool with removing any references to a race as a mascot unless it's flattering, like "Warriors" or a matter of literal pride, like Chippewas or Seminoles. They tend to pay honor the people rather than turn them into caricatures.

 

Redskins is obviously the worst. "Indians" is so generic that it is reductive, like "Negroes" as a mascot.

 

agreed.

[The Gipper]

By the way, I'm 1/8th Cherokee. My dad's grandma was full breed Cherokee in Kentucky.

 

I understand how calling a team "The Indians" and especially "The Redskins" is like calling a team, "The Negroes" or "The Tarbabies." It's reducing a race to a mascot, like an animal.

 

On the other hand, I have a really cool, weathered, faded Indians cap with Wahoo on it... and while it doesn't offend me, as a fractional who doesn't really connect the two, I sure as hell wouldn't wear it to a reservation meeting. It's confusing to me, honestly. I get how it's offensive but over the years it's ceased to mean anything about Native Americans to me.

 

Frankly, I'd be cool with removing any references to a race as a mascot unless it's flattering, like "Warriors" or a matter of literal pride, like Chippewas or Seminoles. They tend to pay honor the people rather than turn them into caricatures.

 

Redskins is obviously the worst. "Indians" is so generic that it is reductive, like "Negroes" as a mascot. Yet, yeah... it would be really weird to change it.

 

That said, that team could use a farging enema.

 

 

Well, in case you didn't know, in essence the Cleveland Browns name is a reference to the color of a black man's skin. The Browns are supposed to be named "in honor" of Joe Louis aka The Brown Bomber. Now, why do you think he was called the Brown Bomber? Because of the color of his skin.

Why don't we just have the Cavs change their name to the Causcasians. Then we could have most ethnic groups represented in this town.

[djdawg2010]

Well, in case you didn't know, in essence the Cleveland Browns name is a reference to the color of a black man's skin. The Browns are supposed to be named "in honor" of Joe Louis aka The Brown Bomber. Now, why do you think he was called the Brown Bomber? Because of the color of his skin.

Why don't we just have the Cavs change their name to the Causcasians. Then we could have most ethnic groups represented in this town.

 

 

Wait a minute. I thought that the Browns were named after their first coach the legendary Paul Brown. I assume you are being facetious.

[rich4eagle]

Harvey Wasserman, Author, SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth

Posted: July 16, 2010 11:15 AM

 

Chief Wahoo Curses Cleveland Yet Again

 

Another tomahawk has sailed into the hearts of Cleveland sports fans. Is it the work of Chief Wahoo, the most racist logo in all of sports?

 

Has the ridiculous, buck-toothed profoundly offensive caricature of a single-feathered native poked yet another hole Cleveland's soul?

 

Mark Welsh, part Ho-de-no-sau-nee (Iroquois) and part Lakota (Sioux) might say so.Mark is a mainstay of the native community in Ohio's capital. For years he's joined other activists when the season opens in Cleveland. They picket in protest of a cartoon they find deeply offensive.

 

In response, Cleveland Indian fans throw beer at them.

 

It's time to reconsider.

 

The departure of LeBron James from the Cavaliers is a death blow. Barring a miracle, no major sports franchise in this tough, depressed lake town has even a remote shot at a league title in the near future.

 

Not since the glory days of the football Browns and their great running back, Jim Brown, has there been a champion in Cleveland.The Browns and Cavs have both threatened since. The Indians twice came within a run of winning the World Series.

 

The details are too heartbreaking to recount.

 

How about a name change? How about dumping that logo? How about a pow wow with the native community to find a new spirit and image? Renamings have become a welcome, long overdue trend in college sports.

 

It'd give Cleveland something -- ANYTHING!!! -- to talk about beside LeBron's jump to the beach.

 

While at Syracuse, Jim Brown played Lacrosse with the great Ho-de-no-sau-nee spiritual leader Oren Lyons. Let's get him and Jim together, organize a transformation of the name, face and soul of Cleveland baseball, and move on. A public renaming would be a magnificent gesture at a time like this. An act of contrition, and of grace.

 

Our nation's capital could then strip the "Redskins" off that football team, an unconscionable epithet in this day and age.

 

Along the way, of course, we'd like to see communities finally own the sports teams whose billionaire speculators demand free stadiums, huge tax breaks and the right to abuse the fans who love them with reckless abandon.

 

But in the meantime ... how about it, Cleveland? ... let's bury Chief Wahoo! We can be absolutely certain that whatever comes next will be better.

 

Mitakuye Oyasin.

 

Wow that post was spectacular. I have a lot of thoughts about Chief Wahoo, right now still in favor of keeping him. On the other hand "Redskins" is a demeaning term. You post was so awesome...........send me a PM, I have something for you

 

the problem with Cleveland is attitude and our nation committed to destroying itself.................the last thrity some did no good for Cleveland and NOT FIGHTING BACK DOES NOT HELP

[slowburn]

Hey Harvey Wasserman...boy you have come along way since your Bar Mitzfa of last year. You must be so proud to have been accepted early into Fuzznutz Community Colleges Creative Writing summer

 

seminar. It must be so inspiring to be among 18 year olds when, geez, you started sprouting pubes and chin whiskers just last month. You have chosen to opine on an issue that means nothing.

 

the funny thing is that you fictionist rarely come up with an original thought of any substance regarding this nonissue. Yet you dribble inane thoughts such as "Not even a remote shot at a league title in the near

 

future." tell me swammi, when can we racist, misguided fans expect to bask in the glory?? prehaps as your skills progress you may choose to tackle a more indepth study of how racism has and continues

 

to make life long impacts on the immigrants of today and yesterday. i wish you could have sat down with my grandfather and his brothers to hear of their treatment in their journey from ireland through the

 

bowery of new york eventually ending up working for the railroad in a Kentucky city. did they cry foul when they discovered that mobile police units were commonly called "paddy wagons"? were their feelings

 

hurt rooting for the caricature which is the mascot for their beloved fightin' irish? da hell no. they came here to the promised land for opportunities. they understood what was really important in their lifes,

 

and it certainly wasn't pissin and moaning about a effin mascot for a sports team.......keep writing your dribble and you will be on the receiving end of a glass projectile hurled by a proud clevelander...you need

 

to know what the shot is BEFORE you open your trap

[FearTheRoo]

I think Jesse Jackson called the Cleveland Indians a bunch of racist slave owners...

 

I'm a white dude. If I heard of a team named the crackers or white skins I'd LOL and buy every t-shirt with that on it. But sadly in the world we live in people like to make a big deal out of everything.

[rich4eagle]

Like fandom...........eh bubba.........checkmate

[Gips]

Could change the tribe's name to the cleveland sheephead and the cavs to the cleveland mercury but for the browns they should be renamed the cleveland frowns with a turd logo on the helm and the shit brown pants...

[hoorta]

Harvey Wasserman, Author, SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth......

 

I've been on an Indian reservation or two, and yeah- I totally sympathize with the plight of the Native Americans (who don't happen to currently own casinos). If you've never read Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, you should. Nah, I got a feeling that those who really take offense at old Chief Wahoo are on the radical activist fringe, not mainstream.

 

Like some of the Jesse Jacksons that still think we haven't done enough to make reparations for slavery- well, we can never make enough reparations for what was done to the Native Americans.

 

I've never forgotten what was on this plaque on a Real Estate agent's desk in Estes Park Colorado- it's from Chief Red Cloud, and if you look up his bio he was a pretty cool dude.

 

"When the white man came, he made to us many promises, more than I can remember. But he never kept but one. He promised to take our land, and he took it."

[cdl15]

Harvey Wasserman, Author, SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth

Posted: July 16, 2010 11:15 AM

 

Chief Wahoo Curses Cleveland Yet Again

 

 

 

But in the meantime ... how about it, Cleveland? ... let's bury Chief Wahoo! We can be absolutely certain that whatever comes next will be better.

 

Mitakuye Oyasin.

complete idiot.. especially if you think that is what the curse is about.

 

[The Gipper]

Wait a minute. I thought that the Browns were named after their first coach the legendary Paul Brown. I assume you are being facetious.

 

No, I wasn't being facetious at all (except about the "Cavaliers" name change). And no, officially, as I understand, the Browns are supposed to be named after Joe Louis, the "Brown Bomber".

[The Gipper]

One popular myth is that the team was named after the popular boxing champion, Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber." The truth, according to several published reports, is this:

 

When owner Arthur McBride brought an AAFC team to Cleveland in 1945, he held a newspaper contest to name the team and offered a $1,000 war bond to the winner. Most of the entries submitted wanted the name Browns, because the extremely popular Paul Brown was the team's head coach.

 

Coach Brown thought it wouldn't be proper to name the team after him, and the entry "Panthers" was selected. A few weeks later, a man approached McBride and said he owned a semi-pro team in the 20's called the Cleveland Panthers and he still owned the rights to the name.

 

McBride could have bought the man off but Brown vetoed the idea. The coach didn't want the new team to be associated with a losing franchise. Instead of holding a new contest, Brown reluctantly agreed to name the team Browns. But, in sticking with his original ideals, Brown suggested publicly that since Louis was "The Brown Bomber", that was how the team got its name. Not a single entry in the contest listed Louis or his nickname as a reason for choosing "Browns."

 

 

Read more: How did the Cleveland Browns get their name? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/8962#ixzz0uKIFr9Hn

 

 

The answer is: yes, the Browns probably are unofficially named after Paul Brown, but officially, at least ab initio per PB himself, they were named after Joe Louis.

What I have always contended is that what Randy Lerner should do is come out officially and state that the name Cleveland Browns is declared to officially be in honor of Paul Brown, Jim Brown, and Joe Louis, and put a statue in front of the stadium for all three men. (of course, he is too interested in putting one up for his dad. That's fine, but I think he should do what I just suggested as well).