4min chapter

Beyond the Scenes from The Daily Show cover image

Revisiting Racist Sports Mascots (feat. Bomani Jones)

Beyond the Scenes from The Daily Show

CHAPTER

Cleveland Guardians

Cleveland changed its name to the Cleveland Guardians. The team's mascot, Chief Wahoo, is still seen as offensive by many Indians. Boondock: I just think there's it's just not the same level of vitriol that we saw in Washington.Boondock: If you watch the video, their legacy is nothing but showing the R word.

00:00
Speaker 4
Was
Speaker 2
there the same feeling crystal of insincere sincerity from the Cleveland Guardians when they changed their name? Because they got roasted to everybody's like, Goudon named the team after two statues that look over traffic.
Speaker 5
Kind
Speaker 2
of smelt like they didn't have a plan either, Bo.
Speaker 5
You know, I
Speaker 1
mean, I think they had a really different process, right? You know, again, I think than to Washington. I mean, again, you know, it's a whole other thing. I mean, I think, you know, for the for the for native peoples, particularly people living in an Cleveland area, I mean, it was just a long hard battle and they were just relieved again, you know, to finally that the name was getting away from it. But it was a much more closed process, you know, but I mean, I just think there's it's just not the same level of vitriol, right? And just, I mean, they were never as nasty as the Washington team and their leadership, right? So I think it's just, you know, it's kind of looked at in a different way. I don't think with the same kind of distrust. And, you know, and I think today looking, you know, reading through all the social media around Indian country, people are pissed at the team, you know, I mean, even though we're relieved, it's just still like so evident that I don't think that they've really learned. And as, you know, Wanda, you put it right. I mean, it's that's their legacy. And if you watch the video, their legacy is nothing but showing the R word. And that is, I mean, it was really like, wow, it was a wink, wink, you know, nod to that. And it's just, it's, you know, in the fall as we know, has a little bit of a racism problem. And there's the understatement. Well, Chris, I'm curious about this with Cleveland, because to me, you know, I am speaking from obviously a bit of a comfortable distance. And like when I hear Indian, I hear Indian like I hear colored, right? Like it's an antiquity that's born in a bunch of stuff, but not a slur in the same way as we talk about these other things. The thing with me with them was always Wahoo, which by the way, they had, if you don't know, they have evolved, there's been various forms of Wahoo, this form of Wahoo, the last one of Chief Wahoo, the mascot they had, is actually progressively less offensive than like the two or three incarnations that had come up previous, like they had held on to that was always the one where I'm like, you got this thing on the head. You can't do that. Like, like that was always the most hotkin everything. Yeah, I was always the most into festival part. And then that last year when they looked like they might almost went into World Series, they had one of the old timers from the 1948 World Series team come back and he had one of the antiquated Cleveland Chief Wahoo. And I was floored. It was the mascot as much as anything else that they held on to people like, look, can you move off from this? Look, can you move off from this? Can you move off from this? And at points teams, it seemed at points that there would be times the leadership was like, yeah, we can do this because they can go sell
Speaker 4
new stuff. They were just so afraid of these angry fans and
Speaker 1
what in the world are these fans going to do? And I'm like, do you know anything about Cleveland sports fans? Do you see the losers they have attached themselves to for
Speaker 4
decades? And you
Speaker 1
think they go quit you over
Speaker 4
this? Are you serious? But they just
Speaker 1
refuse to let go of that part. And that to me was just, it was just always so striking that nothing was quite like that because I feel like, and I could be wrong here. But I feel like the best way to get people to not pay that much attention to your native mascot is if your uniforms are attractive. So the Chicago Blackhawks managed to dodge this in a bit of a unique way. They have very striking jerseys. Like I'm not saying that they're not problematic. I'm saying visually they are striking the Braves have had those uniforms that they've been wearing now since 1987. You can't think of very many teams that have had uniforms the same without any fundamental change to them that long. Like they found a design and they stuck with it. The Chiefs saying wait, somehow, not granted their names are a little different. It's not, you know, it's not the same as the R word and all of these things. But those are the ones they get to skate. If we don't think your gear is hot, we're telling you that you got to get this stuff out of here. You know, I think that's part of it, right?

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