Sportsfrog.com

The top image is an AP Photo that was on the front of ESPN’s website for awhile earlier today to highlight the Cleveland Indians’ win last night. The bottom picture is, of course, Al Jolson in blackface.

I really don’t see much of a difference.

I haven’t been keeping close track of the facepainting trends of Indians fans, but I don’t think I’ve seen that before. Those are guys taking a logo that depicts a shifty primitive clown, and taking it a new level of offensiveness by painting it on their face. And no one is even blinking.

There have always been two sides to the “American Indian as a mascot” debate. I really do believe that the intention of a number of colleges and universities was to honor them. But enough members of the specific tribes complained, and in most cases, the mascots have been replaced. But to me, there is no “other side” to this debate. And now that two fans have actually taken the logo and painted it on their faces, I realize how offensive it is, and am embarassed that it came to that.

When I lived in Kansas, I worked with a number of American Indians who were huge Kansas City Chiefs fans. They had no problem with it at all. In fact, it was kind of a source of pride. They viewed it the same way a number of Irish-Americans view the Notre Dame mascot. However, antiquated terms like “Redskin” made them uncormfortable (hence, my eventual boycott of my favorite pro football team’s merchandise), and most significantly, the Cleveland Indians mascot was a flat-out disgrace.

When I went to school near Cleveland, I knew a lot of Indians fan. A lot of them were culturally sensitive people in every other sense, yet they saw no problem in the mascot, even citing the popular belief that the team was named after a popular American Indian ballplayer. Which doesn’t appear to be accurate at all. I think when you grow up with something and see it everywhere, people get used to it. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t change.

Look, I get that there aren’t enough American Indians left to make noise about this. And some cynics might point out that they’re too busy making money on casinos. But I’d point out that the Cleveland Indians, MLB, FOX, ESPN, and the rest of the mainstream media are all making money off this logo, directly or indirectly. And that practice should stop.

But maybe I’m alone on this. What do you think?