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“It was my way of saying, I agree with you and your feelings and that I’m going to honour that and your entire native American culture,” he said on The Fan 590 on Tuesday morning, three days before Cleveland hosts the Blue Jays in the first game of their best-of-seven series.

Mandhane and activist and writer Jesse Wente are among those asking all sports media to follow his lead: If Cleveland refuses to change its name, reporters should refuse to repeat it, especially in headlines and on radio when kids could be listening. The idea is that instead of writing “the Jays beat the Indians,” reporters could say, “Toronto beats Cleveland” and avoid using a word many now consider a racial slur.

Let’s not wait for them to change their names. There are many things we can do in the spirit of reconciliation

“Let’s not wait for them to change their names. There are many things we can do in the spirit of reconciliation,” Mandhane said, adding there are many other examples of team names that appropriate indigenous cultures, from the Edmonton Eskimos to the Washington Redskins to the Chicago Blackhawks.

“We don’t need to say those names when we’re talking about those teams.”

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is currently intervening in a case between a Mi’kmaq man and the city of Mississauga over a slew of team names that include indigenous caricatures, including the Mississauga Braves, Mississauga Chiefs and Meadowvale Mohawks. Working on that file showed Mandhane how what some will say is “just a name” actually dissuades some indigenous youth from feeling welcome in and participating in sport.

That same sentiment was at the heart of discussions about the forthcoming Major League Baseball series.

“Indigenous people… were talking about how they weren’t looking forward to the the coverage (of the Toronto-Cleveland series) because of the use of the name over and over again,” Mandhane said.

Neither Rogers nor the Blue Jays nor MLB or Cleveland’s team management responded to request for comment on the issue.

On Twitter, the hashtag #NotYourMascot is often paired with #ChangeTheName to protest the many sports teams who employ indigenous imagery or caricatures as logos and mascots, from the Braves to the Blackhaws and Redskins.

“Dear Sports Media, can you please refer to the team playing the Jays as only Cleveland?” tweeted Jocelyn Formsma.