Woohoo, saying goodbye to Wahoo

Viewpoint: The Washington Post Chief Wahoo first got kicked off the road cap of the Cleveland Indians. Next he got booted from the home batting helmet. Then he got nudged aside by the team’s emerging block-C logo. Just in time for the start of this year ’s baseball season, the team officially demoted Chief Wahoo as its primary logo. This grinning, redfaced caricature that so many people see as an insult to Native Americans is on his way to being completely dropped, though not quickly enough. Let’s hope his inevitable demise opens the eyes of Washington’s professional football team to the reality that it needs to drop its offensive name.

“We do have empathy for those who take issue with it,” Indians owner Paul Dolan said last week in announcing the secondary role for the long-standing logo. “We have minimized the use of it and we’ll continue to do what we think is appropriate.” The announcement didn’t contain specifics about how the team’s usage of the logo will change, and Dolan was careful to include a paean to its importance as a “part of our history and legacy.”

But the acknowledgment of official discomfort was nonetheless significant. Activists calling for Chief Wahoo to be dropped can claim a symbolic victory that will energize their protests, which will not end now.

Having minimized use of an admittedly inappropriate image, the team will find it increasingly difficult to explain why any use at all is acceptable.

The team should settle the issue once and for all: Drop Chief Wahoo. Judging by the experience of college teams that have moved away from names demeaning Native Americans, any fan blowback would be short-lived. Perhaps, as some have suggested, the team is prolonging Chief Wahoo’s run to further capitalize on its marketing to fans who think his end may be near.

At least, though, the Cleveland owners are moving in the right direction. In that, they offer a sharp contrast to Washington football team owner Daniel Snyder, who has been unwilling to recognize — or do anything to correct — the offense caused by his team’s name.