I know that for a lot of people, Chief Wahoo is a nostalgic thing. It is their childhood.

So when the Cleveland Indians announced that they would be removing the logo from the uniforms come 2019, it caused a bit of an uproar.

And honestly, I do not get it.

Chief Wahoo is a racist logo made over 70 years ago in very racist times in America.

While people may claim that the logo was never meant to be racist, which I just do not believe is true, just because something has no malicious intent does not mean it is not racist.

I mean his name is Chief Wahoo.

The logo was created in the year 1947.

To put things into perspective that was 71 years ago, about seven years before the civil rights movement even took place.
Back then, being any kind of person of color, including Native American, was difficult.

According to the Library of Congress, Native Americans could not vote in all 50 states until 1962. That was 15 years after Chief Wahoo was created. For 15 years we had a logo of people who did not even have the right to vote. It was obviously racist from the start.

A huge argument for the pro Chief Wahoo side that I have seen is the logo was apparently created in honor of a Native American player.

While the team itself was named the Cleveland Indians for Native American player Louis Sockalexis, it is said that Chief Wahoo was created in honor of the Native American player Allie Reynolds.

However, Reynolds was traded to the New York Yankees the year the logo was created, so the argument is kind of irrelevant.
Why would they make an entire logo and mascot for a man who they had just traded to another team?

Even if it is true, it does not give them the right to make an entire group of people into a logo.

This entire debate has been going on between Indians fans for years now, but in the last few weeks it has just been intensified.
Some fans are worried that what has started with removing a logo will eventually spiral into changing the name of the team. For whatever reason the idea of changing the name of the Cleveland Indians devastates some people.

The thought of change is apparently terrifying even though Cleveland’s baseball team had several different names before the Cleveland Indians.

Personally, I like to make it a general rule that people should not be mascots or logos, so I hope it goes as far as a name change.

I hope they remove Chief Wahoo from shops and merchandise, I hope they change the name from the Cleveland Indians, I hope every other professional sports team with racist names, like the Washington Redskins, change their name and mascots too.
In conclusion, Chief Wahoo is racist.

No one is stopping you personally from wearing Chief Wahoo or continuing to buy Chief Wahoo merchandise, that is a personal choice.

They are just removing the logo from the uniforms in 2019.

It is happening.

It is what should be happening.

Get over it.