"I wanted to applaud The Vindicator for printing an editorial from the Los Angeles Times, “‘Redskins’ is wrong” on the Nov. 28 editorial page that culminated with the line, “The Washington franchise’s name is an embarrassment to the Nation’s capital and a blight on the NFL.” Likewise, our beloved Chief Wahoo is an embarrassment to Northeast Ohio.

I was born and raised in Boardman and proudly donned my Chief Wahoo hat for years. I bought into the excuse that the disfigured caricature and name actually honored Louis Sockalexis, an member of the Penobscot tribe who played for Cleveland for two years. As professor Kimberly Roppolo states in her essay “Symbolic Racism, History, and Reality: The Real Problem With Indian Mascots”: “I realize that many people see no problem with the use of American Indians as sports mascots ... we are in a day and age where racial tolerance and tolerance for all kinds of diversity have increased. But this is not the case with racism against American Indians, largely so ingrained in the American consciousness that it is invisible.”"

Get the Story:
Allison Davis: Let’s lose offensive mascots (The Youngstown Vindicator 12/3)

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