wfn.org | Opposition to Chief Wahoo logo grows

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 31, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-34-71B{390}

By United Methodist News Service

Opposition to Chief Wahoo, the logo for the Cleveland Indians baseball team,
is growing, according to a Religion News Service article written by David
Briggs, religion editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.

Cleveland's own mayor revealed his objection to the caricature in recent
weeks, Briggs reported, "but the moral groundwork had already been laid in a
series of actions by black and mainline Protestant religious groups that
underscored the new vulnerability of the fire-engine red, hook-nosed,
bucktoothed logo many American Indians find offensive."

Meeting in Cleveland May 2-12, delegates to the United Methodist General
Conference called on the team owners to remove the offensive logo and
instructed planners not to hold a future conference in a city where such
sports mascots exist. Several other religious groups have also expressed
disfavor with the logo.

Briggs observed that those on the front lines say "the line of fear that
prevented even religious groups from taking on Chief Wahoo has been crossed
in a manner that parallels the civil rights movements of the 1950s and
1960s, when black protesters gradually won over the larger community with
moral persuasion."

A spokesman for the Cleveland Indians told Briggs the logo is a caricature
that is not meant to represent any group of human beings.

"Our position on this would be our name and logo have been a part of the
Cleveland fabric since 1915, and we continue to impress upon people that we
believe when people look at our logo, they think baseball," said Bob
DiBiasio, Indians vice president of public relations.

The protests go back to the 1970s, when American Indian Movement leader
Russell Means organized demonstrations, Briggs wrote. Protest leaders said
Chief Wahoo is demeaning to Indians and their traditions.

Briggs noted that until recently "the religious community mostly sat on the
sidelines of the Wahoo debate." Local religious leaders would privately
express support but would not go public in fear of offending large numbers
of constituents.  

When the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church took up the
issue in 1998, a resolution to condemn Wahoo was defeated by a two-thirds
majority.

In a series of electronic messages, Mayor Michael R. White and top aides
expressed their disgust with "the offensive, racist symbol." The mayor
proposed stripping it from city-owned property. The United Pastors in
Mission, the leading group of black clergy in Greater Cleveland, came out
against Wahoo, maintaining that the community should not start the 21st
century with such an offensive symbol.  

"We felt it was a discriminatory icon and offensive to our brothers the
Indians," said the Rev. Larry Macon of Mount Zion Baptist Church, head of
United Pastors in Mission. "I think this is a very essential issue."

In November, the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio approved a resolution calling for
the end of Wahoo and asking churches and members not to buy any products
bearing the logo. In spring 1999, the Presbytery of Western Reserve approved
a resolution urging teams employing Native American imagery to choose a new
logo, and also asked Presbyterians not to buy products that negatively
stereotype Indians.  

The United Church of Christ has been active in the fight since 1990, Briggs
wrote. The denomination's Rev. Allison Phillips said different religious
groups had finally put aside their fears of reprisal from members to
confront the debate's moral issues.

"The bottom line is, it's always the right time to do the right thing,"
Phillips told Briggs. Phillips is an official of the Justice and Witness
Ministries of the United Church of Christ.

Briggs' article appeared in the Aug. 25 daily report of Religion News
Service, an interfaith news service based in Washington.  

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United Methodist News Service
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