Save Chief Wahoo

I see this morning that Major League Baseball has made the Cleveland Indians remove their smiling Indian mascot, Chief Wahoo, from their uniforms. This action will only make me wear my own personal Chief Wahoo cap more and more often even though I am a lifelong and devout Detroit Tigers fan. No tiger that I know is offended by that, and being me, perhaps they should be.

Chief Wahoo violates, in the eyes of many, one of the worst sins of the modern world: racism. I will not debate his origin. Being not naive, I would not be shocked if the image originated with a degree of racism. I also don't doubt that the charge is overblown, or at least ameliorated over time. Chief Wahoo in 2018 is a symbol of a baseball team. Nothing more.

Now I'm really going to stir the pot. As a white guy, a Catholic, and being of Irish descent, I'm sure that I cannot possibly understand such harm as Wahoo offers (I'm being smarmy here folks). Be all that as it may, I am in fact not offended in the least by the San Diego Padres and their sometimes-used goofy friar pathetically swinging a bat at a ball, nor by the enraged Irish caricature used by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (and don't you dare tell me that the Irish weren't a genuinely offended group once), neither by the Wake Forest Demon Deacon. Why should I be? They are, to use the word again, mere caricatures and intended to be funny. I am not so overly sensitive, so thin-skinned that I cannot take a jibe. I wonder if we shall ever be equal until we can equally jibe one another.

Yes, the line can be crossed. Not to upset NFL fans, but the moniker Redskins does cross it. But the problem with Chief Wahoo is nothing more than he offends the PC police. And I intend to offend them all summer long with my Cleveland baseball cap. They've earned it.

The Redskins and the US Patent Office

Okay. Now the United States Patent Office has gotten into the fray. It has revoked patents on the Washington Redskins name; yet we hear little about free speech rights despite that.

This isn't to defend the Redskins, whose name admittedly is pretty offensive. There's no point denying that, Washington fans. But there are issues nonetheless with what the Patent Office, and arm of the US Government, has done, as well as free speech questions seen more broadly.

When the government funds art, even or perhaps especially art which is clearly intended to insult (such as the Crucifix in urine thing years ago), we're supposed to accept it as a defense of free speech even with our tax dollars paying for the offense. Yet offend certain other folks and government action goes exactly the other way. This is more than merely schizophrenic. It is dangerous when a government can say what is and is not legitimate free speech. That is exactly what the action does.

The real bottom line is that Redskins should change their name and Washington itself should get out of the business of censorship, even with such relatively mild forms as a patent office rebuke. The move isn't likely to actually hurt the organization, but it sets a bad precedent for our future leaders who might one day employ such tactics against their political enemies. Mere football games and team names will matter after that point is reached.