While the Washington Redskins have long been the focal point of the sports branding racism debates, the Cleveland Indians' presence in this year's World Series has thrown their cartoon mascot, "Chief Wahoo," back into the spotlight.
What is remarkable about the Indians' branding is that it has grown worse over time, as demonstrated by a historical progression of Cleveland logos shared by Fast Company. In the team's earliest years, its logo was a simple C for Cleveland, but in 1928 the team adopted a pictorial logo. It all went downhill from there, and though the C logo was brought back in 2014, Chief Wahoo still appears in arguably his most racist form on the team's uniforms and merchandise.
The Braves, currently of Atlanta, followed a similar pattern of moving from single letter logos and more realistic depictions of their Native mascot to an increasingly cartoonish and literally red version.
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For more on Chief Wahoo in particular and Native imagery in sports more broadly, check out this analysis from The Week's Emily L. Hauser.
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