Play ball, but with equality

By Dalton Walker

Nobody probably noticed or even cared. I did.

April is more than a month of rain to many people. It’s the start of the baseball season. Red Sox, Twins, Yankees, Cubs, Mets …

But this isn’t a blog about my season predictions. Instead, it’s about the double standard that seems to smother Natives when it involves mascots.

Recently, Major League Baseball held its first “Civil Rights Game” between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians. It was nationally televised. Yes, the same Cleveland Indians with the degrading “Chief Wahoo” as its mascot.

In 1975, Cleveland was the first team to hire a black manager and the first American League team with a black player in 1947.

Preston Wilson, St. Louis’ only black player, explained to reporters what the game meant to him.

“When you say civil rights, you think about the struggles, especially for my race, to be considered equals -- or to even be the same type of human being,” Wilson said. “It's just the culmination of everything that leads up to finally achieving a point where the whole world views everyone the same no matter where they are from or what they look like.”

He is absolutely right. Equality is beautiful.

The game was in Memphis, Tenn., home of the Nation Civil Rights Museum – which was built on the site of the old Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The game highlighted a weekend of festivities aimed at recognizing blacks in baseball.

Blacks have left their mark on professional baseball including the great Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play in the major leagues.

Civil rights is often referred to as racial equality. It's usually defined as a policy to end discrimination based on race, skin color, religion or national origin.

I commend MLB Commissioner Bud Selig for his efforts, but I also criticize him for being a hypocrite and allowing Cleveland to participate when he rightfully knows how much its mascot oppresses Native peoples. I understand that Cleveland was a pioneer when it came to black coaches and players, but the idea of the “Indians” being involved in such a great idea is absurd.

The double standard exists in professional athletes more so than college. The Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians need to wake up and change their mascots. That day might never come. But I think it will. It’s only a matter of time before Natives strengthen their numbers and their voice.

In the meantime, Selig, please take a stand.

Dalton Walker, Red Lake Chippewa, is studying journalism at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. A graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute, Walker will intern as a reporter at The New York Times this summer.