Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians to consider name change amid racial tensions in US

The Cleveland Indians adopted the lead of the NFL’s Washington Redskins on Friday because the Major League Baseball membership mentioned it too will consider altering a group nickname that has been in place for 105 years.

The Indians, who’ve come below hearth in the previous for his or her controversial nickname, mentioned the latest social unrest in the United States has underscored the necessity to enhance as an organisation on problems with social justice.

“We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the group mentioned in a press release.

“Our organisation fully recognises our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community.”

The Indians, who’re set to start their 2020 season in late July amid the COVID-19 outbreak, additionally mentioned it’s dedicated to performing in a fashion that may greatest unite and encourage all those that help the Cleveland group.

The announcement by the Indians got here hours after the NFL’s Redskins mentioned that in mild of latest occasions across the United States and suggestions from the group that it’s going to conduct a radical evaluate of the name.

A push to remove racially insensitive materials has intensified following the May 25 loss of life of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis.

In 2018, the Indians introduced plans to take away the grinning “Chief Wahoo” brand from their uniforms starting in the 2019 season in a bow to critics who’ve lengthy assailed the picture as a racist Native American caricature.

The group nonetheless characteristic the emblem, a cartoon determine with pink pores and skin, a toothy smile and a feather in his headband, on merchandise offered in their shops in northeast Ohio and in Goodyear, Arizona, the place the Indians maintain spring coaching.