How racist is the Cleveland Indians' mascot? Very.

If you made him swarthy and swapped a yarmulke for his feather, "Chief Wahoo" would be right at home in a Nazi pamphlet

Time to retire, Chief Wahoo.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

Baseball is, at the end of the day, baseball. A game. A lark. A pastime. Except that nothing is "just" anything, and all of culture is closely tied to the people around us and the politics of our lives. As the saying goes: The personal is political. Even baseball. Even during the World Series.

Full disclosure: I'm a ride-or-die Cubs fan; there's nothing I'd like more than to see them sweep the Cleveland Indians this weekend, winning the World Series for the first time in over a century in Wrigley Field. (Fuller disclosure: If this happens, your reporter will lose her mind). So I get what Cleveland fans are going through — the excitement, the angst, the families gathered with literal tears in their eyes.

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Emily L. Hauser

Emily L. Hauser is a long-time commentary writer. Her work has appeared in a variety of outlets, including The Daily Beast, Haaretz, The Forward, Chicago Tribune, and The Dallas Morning News, where she has looked at a wide range of topics, from helmet laws to forgetfulness to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.