Cleveland Indians produce astonishingly tone deaf shirt

The Cleveland Indians had been under fire for years due to the name of their franchise. While the legend is that the name was chosen to honor former outfielder Lou Sockalexis, that claim has since been debunked. While the franchise has said that they will look to find a new name, the Indians moniker will continue for at least one more year.

Meanwhile, as the franchise looks to move towards a more inclusive name, someone forgot to tell their merchandising department. Both the Indians and Major League Baseball gave their approval for an astonishingly tone deaf shirt that is currently up for sale.

Cleveland Indians new shirt amazingly tone deaf

The Indians likely could rationalize this shirt. Cleveland is known as ‘The Land’ after all, and the team is also called the Tribe. And at least they have the block C logo, instead of putting Chief Wahoo on the shirt, so that can be considered progress, right?

But it boggles the mind that someone could look at this concept and give it the green light given the current social and political climate. Not only that, but this shirt and design went through four layers, including the team and Major League Baseball, and was still approved.

This just takes away any possible goodwill that the team had generated from their decision to change their name. Cleveland was ready to rid themselves of a moniker that had been a relic of a bygone time but was now racially insensitive.

However, it seemed that they needed to find another way to insult everyone one last time. One final way to show that they do not need a caricature of a smiling native to be racially insensitive. All they needed was four words and they could continue with that same message.

The Cleveland Indians’ new shirt is astonishingly tone deaf. It just goes to show that they did not need Chief Wahoo to have the same impact.