There are hundreds upon millions of problems Americans have each day, for instance, poverty, homelessness, healthcare, and the list goes on, but I am going to touch on a topic that has dated back to the 1600's. Racism. Throughout time racism has never failed to fade away into the past like other problems, it has grown to be more of an issue as time goes on. One of the issues today relating to racism is the Cleveland Indians' figurehead, the Chief Wahoo. When the Chief Wahoo became the face of the Cleveland Indians why was it not an issue then, has there been another time similar to the present where people thought it was racist, and what started this debate all of a sudden?.
The Cleveland Indians Baseball team began on June 2, 1869, from the Cleveland forest cities. Cleveland combined with the Cincinnati Red Stockings and made up Cleveland's first professional baseball team, The Cleveland Indians, which started their franchise as the "Cleveland Naps ". It all started on January 1915, the Indians, otherwise known as the Cleveland "Naps " at the time, had lost one of their best players Napoleon Lajoie to the Philadelphia Athletics. It did not seem right to still call the ball club the Naps. On January 15, 1915, it was announced that their new name was going to be the Cleveland Indians. .
In 1947, seventeen year old Walter Goldbach, was challenged by Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck, to make a mascot that had joy and enthusiasm. Goldbach created a mascot with yellow skin and a large and prominent nose and a large smile. Eventually with time sportswriters named him Chief Wahoo. Goldbach did not like this because he was not mean to be a "chief " he only had one feather in his head, where chiefs had full headdresses. The chief was later redesigned with red skin and a smaller nose. The logo has been the face of the Cleveland Indians ever since, with small changes to the black outline to a blue outline of the character in the 1950's.
