President Donald Trump said that the potential move by the Cleveland Indians professional baseball team to drop the name “Indians” is “cancel culture at work.”
The Ohio baseball team was reported to be changing its names over concerns of cultural insensitivity on Sunday. The official announcement is reported to take place later this week, though the exact day and time is unknown.
“Oh no! What is going on? This is not good news, even for ‘Indians’. Cancel culture at work!” Trump wrote in a tweet on Sunday.
Oh no! What is going on? This is not good news, even for “Indians”. Cancel culture at work! https://t.co/d1l0C9g6Pd
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2020
The Cleveland Indians adopted its current name in 1915. Before becoming the Indians, the team had been known as the Bluebirds, Broncos, and the Naps.
The Indians may replace the team name with another or choose to mimic the Washington Football Team, formerly Washington Redskins, in dropping the name entirely, potentially becoming the Cleveland Baseball Team. The organization will stick with its current mascot throughout the 2021 season, however.
The Cleveland Indians organization phased out its mascot, Chief Wahoo, from jerseys and merchandise after the 2018 season. In July, the organization announced that it would have discussions with “our community and appropriate stakeholders” on the future of the team name. The announcement came amid backlash to the Washington Football Team before it changed its name from the Redskins.
“We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the Cleveland Indians said in a July 3 statement. “Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community.”
“We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues. The recent unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice,” the statement continued. “With that in mind, we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to our team name.”
“While the focus of the baseball world shifts to the excitement of an unprecedented 2020 season, we recognize our unique place in the community and are committed to listening, learning and acting in the manner that can best unite and inspire our city and all those who support our team,” the statement concluded.
The debate in Cleveland over the future of the professional baseball team’s name fits in with a larger movement within professional sports toward activism over entertainment. Numerous players and teams have made statements condemning racism and police brutality in the wake of mass protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Kneeling or staying in the locker room during the U.S. national anthem before professional sporting events has grown more commonplace.
In August, the Baltimore Ravens made a public statement declaring that “racism is embedded in the fabric of our nation’s foundation and is a blemish on our country’s history. If we are to change course and make our world a better place, we must face this problem head-on and act now to enact positive change.”