The Team From Cleveland

The Toronto Blue Jays are into the ALCS.
There was a brief moment where my faith in them faltered this season...they took a tumble in the standings that almost carried them right out of the playoffs. In the end they got in and dispatched the Texas Rangers in three straight.

You have to feel a little bad for the Rangers if you're any kind of baseball fan. They threw two of the better starters in the AL at the Jays; both were shredded. They made the third game as close as could be only to lose as one of the more sure-handed players on their roster committed an error that led to the winning run in extra innings.

Now it's on to Cleveland to face the--

Okay. The nickname of Cleveland's MLB team is the Indians. One of my Facebook friends--a friend of a friend, in fact--posted this to her timeline yesterday:

INDIANS IT IS. BLUE JAYS, GET READY.

Whereupon one of her friends posted "Cleveland it is." Thus ensued a debate that got a little heated.

I originally came down with her in favour of calling the team what it's called. They're the Indians; that's the team name. It is indeed politically incorrect, nowadays, to refer to indigenous people as "Indians" -- not to mention factually incorrect, as Indians are from India. I'd never call a First Nations person an Indian. But I'm not calling indigenous people that, I'm calling the team that.

Oh, how I should have known better.  Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. It's even more inexcusable given the overarching theme of this autumn's sermons at GRU: Truth and Reconciliation. The fact is, if you're going to call the team the Cleveland Indians, you may as well go ahead and make up other teams in the same league. The Fresno Faggots, maybe. Or the Nashville Niggers.

In my weak, weak defence, I did make it clear that I felt the name should have been changed years ago. But you know, if I really did feel that way, I shouldn't have felt any inclination to use it myself.

Jerry Howarth, the play-by-play radio announcer for the Blue Jays, got a fan letter from a First Nations youth in 1992. and ever since he has refused to call the Cleveland team by its name. Ditto Atlanta: "Brave" is likewise offensive. (That link will prove educational for some of my readers.) He has since received a tonne of fan support for his stance, which has only recently gained a wider recognition; other broadcasters such as Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell have pledged to follow suit.

And oh, the reactions I've seen since...the crazy, outlandish and hyper-exaggerated protestations...suggest to me that yes, indeed, there's merit in calling people what they want to be called and refraining from using offensive terms to describe...anything.

I'm offended by the term "Blue Jays".  Blue jays are nasty birds that break into other birds' nests and steal their eggs. As a bird lover, this is disgusting.

I hope dear Jerry will not refer to the Chicago White Sox as the "white sox"... I take offence to referring to white people as socks or worse implying they are stomped on. 

This is political correctness gone too fucking far, I'm going to call the team the Cleveland Alcoholic Squaws in protest!

Any time I see "political correctness has gone too far" , I'm forcibly put in mind of this from Neil Gaiman:

I was reading a book (about interjections, oddly enough) yesterday which included the phrase “In these days of political correctness…” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with ‘political correctness’. That’s just treating other people with respect.” Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect”, and it made me smile. You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening. I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”
My life so far has been an ongoing lesson in kindness, compassion and respect for others. Calling people by the name they choose for themselves is one tiny, tiny part of that. Another is avoiding words that cause offence. And in this case, there are so many perfectly acceptable alternatives! Rather than indian, what's so difficult about indigenous person? Aboriginal? First Nations? member of _____ tribe/nation? 

The team in Cleveland needs to change its name. They have several antecedents they could draw on...baseball teams in Cleveland once went by the Lake Shores, the Blues, the Spiders, the Forest Citys. They could select an entirely new name. I mean, it's only called the Indians because an "Indian" played for the team for a few seasons...and baseball is the ultimate in team sports. One player, no matter HOW talented, will not win you baseball games.

I too stand with Jerry Howarth. They'll be called the team from Cleveland until they get with the program.