11-03-16 Cleveland Indians should change their name

Cleveland Indians should change their name

The Cleveland Indians were defeated by the Chicago Cubs in the World Series championship on Wednesday night, Nov. 2, 2016 at Progressive Field in Cleveland in the 10th inning by a score of 8 to 7. But before the game was played, I wrote this column looking at the racism of the Cleveland Indian's name and how they should be disqualified from playing baseball until they change it.

Published in the Southwest News-Herald newspaper, Nov. 3, 2016

By Ray Hanania

If the Cleveland Indians end up winning the World Series, as it seems as I write this on Sunday, Game 5, I don’t think they should be given the World Series title until they own up to their historical disregard for humanity and American history.

They need to change their name, first.

“Cleveland Indians” is an offensive name and their symbol or mascot, Chief Wahoo is and has been disturbing.

That professional athletes would even want to be a part of a baseball team that denigrates and offends the cultural heritage of an entire race of people is disgusting.

Before the team was known as the Cleveland Indians, it had many official names and many nicknames. One nickname was the “Indians” because in the late 1890s, one of its key players was Native American player Louis Francis Sockalexis, who was an outfielder when the team was called the Cleveland Spiders.

Click here to read the print column ...

This is Ray Hanania’s column commentary Podcast … Hanania’s columns are published each week in newspapers throughout the United States and in the Middle East.

He writes on American politics and life in Chicagoland every week in the Des Plaines Valley News,Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, the Reporter Newspapers,NewsAmericaNetwork.com, and IllinoisNewsNetwork.com.

Hanania also writes a weekly column every Thursday for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com. And, writes news and features for his website at TheArabDailyNews.com.

An award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter named Best Ethnic Columnist by the NewAmerica Media, and recipient of the Sigma Delta Chi award for writing, Hanania is of Palestinian Arab heritage. 

You can reach him and share your opinions and thoughts by emailing him at rghanania@gmail.com. All his columns are archived at RayHanania.com.

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(An award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist. American Palestinian Arab, Hanania writes a weekly column for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com. He also writes each week for several mainstream American newspapers on American politics and life in Chicagoland. Reach him at rghanania@gmail.com.)