As my dear departed mother used to say, “A hard head makes for a soft behind.” When will the hardheaded Cleveland Indians’ owners realize that the curse placed on the team by Native Americans over the racist Chief Wahoo mascot back when Jacobs Field first opened in 1995 remains in full force?
I know, I know you’re really not superstitious… but the point is, you don’t have to be — the players are, and they’re the ones out on the field trying to throw, hit and catch the ball, and athletes are among the most superstitious group of humans on the planet. And as long as any of the players believe they are cursed … they all are cursed, and, by extension, you are too.
Does anyone really believe that all of the members of the Indians baseball club approve of the outdated, racist mascot?
It took the Cubs 108 years to finally win a World Series, and 71 years since the famous curse of the goat was placed on the team. Can the Indians keep Chief Wahoo as their team mascot and eventually win the Fall Classic? Certainly but— in about another 50 or so years — give or take maybe a decade or two.
Is it really all that important to disrespect an entire nation of people simply to make some very wealthy owners even wealthier by selling over-priced trinkets? Sure, there are some ignorant Native Americans somewhere in the country that state the cartoonist red visage of Chief Wahoo doesn’t bother them one bit. But then there were some African-Americans that said slavery didn’t bother them either.
Go figure.
And the absolute height of racial insensitivity is for someone who is not a Native American to tell someone who is a Native American what should or should not be offensive to him or her. This says, “Your opinion about your own race doesn’t count — it’s only what I feel, think and say that counts.”
While the Indians will still have a great team for a few years to come, why don’t they get rid of the disputed mascot for next season and see if it makes a difference in terms of breaking the curse? If it doesn’t work, if they don’t win, the owners can always go right back to their racist ways in 2018.
To me, that sounds like an offer they can’t refuse.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: The Curse Continues”
gretchen
I refer to the team as Cleveland, can’t even say “Go Tribe.” My mind says, “Don’t you remember what happens to people who live in tribes around here?” I was especially sensitive because of the Dakota Access Pipeline travesty. How can we tear up their graveyards and poison the water for a million people and then root for the Indians to win. I honesty can’t absorb anymore hypocrisy and hate.
P. Jeffrey
Wahoo is not only offensive, he’s just ugly–the worst looking logo in sports. He’s bad for the team and we’ll never win as long a people are still making money selling his image. It’s time to say goodbye to Wahoo.