2016 has been a banner year for sports in Cleveland. Stipe Miočić brought the UFC heavyweight belt to the city, the Lake Erie Monsters won the Calder Cup, and the Cavaliers won the NBA championship, bringing the city it's first major professional sports title since 1964. The Cleveland Indians also saw great success this season, winning the American League pennant for the first time since 1997. They also very nearly won the World Series, despite sporting a roster decimated by injuries to several key players. They pushed the MLB-best Chicago Cubs to the brink before ultimately dropping the series in seven games.

As close as the Indians came, and as much as yet another championship would be good for the city, it would probably be impossible to discuss the very obvious issue with the Indians organization had they won. The problem is inescapable: the name "Indians" and the Chief Wahoo logo are racist and unacceptable. The MLB and Indians ownership have both admitted this on several occasions, even if they haven't come out and explicitly said it. In 2007, during the team's appearance at the Civil Rights game, the team didn't use any of it's official logos or lettering, opting for "Cleveland" across the front of the jersey. In the 2010s the organization began "phasing out" Chief Wahoo, replacing it as the primary logo with the current "block C." At the 2013 All Star Game in New York, the league refused to sell merchandise and memorabilia with Chief Wahoo.

The Dolans claim the team uses the nickname and logo out of respect, and to honor Native American peoples; and fans are quick to point out that the name was created to honor Louis Sockalexis, who played for the Cleveland Spiders from 1897-1899. And while that may have been the intention, the term Indian is at best an offensive antiquity of American history that was due to be retired long ago, and there is simply no defense for the use of a dehumanizing redface caricature as a logo. Use of the logo and name has been condemned by the American Sociological Association, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the National Congress of American Indians, and Native American individuals and groups have been protesting the organization consistently since the 70s, both in court and through direct actions at Indians games and events. Regardless of the team's intent over 100 years ago, use of the nickname "Indians" and the Chief Wahoo logo is racially insensitive and offensive. Cleveland fans opposed to the name and logo have taken to "dechiefing" team merchandise, covering logos with tape or removing them all together. It's time the Indians organization dechiefed, once and for all.