In 2005, the American Psychological Association put out a paper stating that “research has shown that the continued use of American Indian mascots … has a negative effect not only on American Indian students but all students.” Mascots like Chief Wahoo, the APA writes, “undermine the ability of American Indian nations to portray accurate and respectful images of their culture, spirituality and traditions” and “are a contemporary example of prejudice by the dominant culture.” And American Indians suffer as a result: A 2014 study from the Center for American Progress notes that “the presence of mascots directly results in lower self-esteem and mental health for adolescents and young adults.” That is a heavy blow to a community that already struggles with substance abuse, suicide and poverty at rates that are many times higher than the national average. American Indians exist somewhere on the level between make-believe and prop in American sports culture.īut it’s not just fans that are impacted.

Those fans watch teams like the Atlanta Braves, whose fans perform the “Tomahawk Chop” and reduce American Indian culture to the equivalent of a “Charge!” cry. Those fans live in a world where a team gets to call itself the Redskins-a racial slur-and insist that it does so to honor American Indians. Indians, Cavaliers creating a winning culture in the city of ClevelandĪfter all, those fans have grown up in a world where images like Chief Wahoo are the prevalent representation of American Indians-where they are mascots, advertising pitchmen and Halloween costumes, not real people who have experienced pain and suffering. Fans see that Wahoo has been a part of the team for decades and assume that there is nothing wrong in following that lead, in showing up to a game wearing facepaint and a headdress. Wahoo helps encourage behavior like that of fans like Rodriguez, who dress up like American Indians because they can’t imagine how that would be offensive. This is the reality created by caricatures like Chief Wahoo: one in which a racist stereotype is supported and perpetuated because of the insistence of the team and its fans that Wahoo is just a cartoon. “I then asked him why redface was any more excusable, and he struggled to come up with an answer.” To a local TV station, Rodriguez could only say, “It’s Cleveland pride.” (Rodriguez subsequently apologized to Roche and said he would stop wearing facepaint to games.) “I asked if he’d ever show up to a game in blackface, to which he replied that he wouldn’t,” Pattakos writes.

Indians 2016 world series baseball cap