Tag: Cleveland

Indian activists in Cleveland to file suit against baseball team

A 2002 cartoon from Lalo Alcaraz and a 2014 photo at a Cleveland Indians protest.
A 2002 cartoon from Lalo Alcaraz and a 2014 photo at a Cleveland Indians protest.

Source: Indianz.com

Indian activists in Illinois are planning to file a lawsuit against the Cleveland Major League Baseball team.

Activists have been protesting the team’s Chief Wahoo mascot for decades. They hope the lawsuit leads to the elimination of the racist symbol.

“We’re going to be asking for $9 billion and we’re basing it on a hundred years of disparity, racism, exploitation and profiteering,” Robert Roche, the director of the American Indian Education Center and one of the plaintiffs in the forthcoming suit, told ABC News.

Roche, who can be seen in the photo above on the opening day of the team’s season, said the lawsuit will be filed by the end of July.

Get the Story:
Native American group plans to file federal lawsuit against Cleveland Indians over Chief Wahoo logo (ABC News 6/23)
Native Groups Look to Retire the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo (NBC News 6/23)

AIM-WEST to Protest Baseball Game Against Cleveland Team Friday

Native News Network

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – American Indian Movement West, better known as AIM-WEST, is asking for a support of solidarity to demonstrate at the Oakland Coliseum when the Oakland A’s play the Cleveland baseball team beginning on Friday, August 16 at 7 pm pdt.

AIM-WEST to Protest Baseball Game

AIM-WEST calls for congressional hearings on racism in sports

 

The purpose for the rally is to demonstrate to the public that the American Indian communities are sick and tired of these discriminatory logos and negative images that serves to demean and disrespect a peoples, a culture, and deeply negatively impacting American Indian youth.

All drummers and dancers welcome, youth, elders, and the general public to come stand in solidarity with Indigenous nations of this Western Hemisphere for their right to dignity and respect.

AIM-WEST will announce a national campaign to launch a petition drive demanding the National Football League (NFL), and the Major League Baseball (MLB) to retire, remove, and or replace these racist images and slurs that are in violation of Indigenous peoples human rights. AIM-WEST calls for congressional hearings on racism in sports, and the removal by legislation of discriminatory logos that depict a people in a negative manner.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in September 2007 by the General Assembly, specifically states in Article #8:

  1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.
  2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:
    • Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
    • Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
    • Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violation or undermining any of tier rights;
    • Any form of forced assimilation or integration;
    • Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.