Bomani Jones' "Caucasians" T-shirt, a dig at the Cleveland Indians' controversial Chief Wahoo logo, had ESPN asking the "Highly Questionable"
host to cover up on Thursday, sources told TMZ.
The team's name and logo have long been a source of contention in the Native American community and Jones, who was guest-hosting the "Mike and Mike" show, stoked the flames of controversy with his shirt, which read "Caucasians" in the same script as the Indians jerseys and also depicted a white-faced Wahoo with a dollar sign instead of a
feather above his head, Cleveland.com reported.
He explained his choice of clothing on-air.
"The reason they won't get rid of Chief Wahoo, which is completely indefensible, is they could still sell stuff with it," Jones said. "They can say they're gonna de-emphasize it, but they're not just gonna set money on fire. I thought [the shirt] was the exact same thing, and I could see the value in the design, so I was like, hey, we might as well give this a run."
"ESPN freaked out" over the stunt, a source told TMZ and, sure enough, later on in the show Jones had partially zipped up his hoodie, obscuring a portion of the emblem.
The sports network later issued a statement on the incident.
"As the show progressed, we felt Bomani had made his point and had openly discussed why he was wearing the shirt, and we wanted to keep the focus to the topics of the day," an ESPN representative told TMZ Thursday.
Jones found support from various quarters on broaching the Native American nickname topic.
"That Jones had to defend the shirt ultimately proves his point,"
USA Today's "For The Win" blog commented. "As he says in the interview, 'It's just like the Cleveland Indians shirt — exactly like the Cleveland Indians shirt with one small change.' If you are offended by the shirt, you must be offended by the Indians' Chief Wahoo logo. If not, you're hypocritical."
GQ writer Jack Moore, a self-described Cleveland Indians fan, said he believes Jones' effort made the point about contradictions over using the nickname and logo.
"So, let's just get this over with and change the name," he wrote. "It'd be fun to be able to buy Cleveland baseball gear free from the fear that you're supporting racism. Is that asking so much?"
There was considerable backlash on social media, though.
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