Should MLB's Texas Rangers Change Their Name?

As the demand for social change has echoed throughout the streets of the United States, our Nation's sketchy past has also been called into question. Monuments that were erected to pay tribute to our past have now been toppled because of their connection to white supremacy and oppression.

As you can imagine, sports has not been omitted from this scrutiny. In fact, sports has long been criticized for holding on to problematic traditions and racially insensitive team names. Recently, the Texas Rangers have been placed under the microscope for their own name. In an article for the Chicago Tribune, writer Steve Chapman writes that the Rangers should give up their name because of their troubling history. In his article he cites author Doug J. Swanson and his book “Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers,” in an effort to illustrate the reality of the Rangers past.

In his book Swanson writes, “They burned peasant villages and slaughtered innocents,” he writes. “They committed war crimes. Their murders of Mexicans and Mexican Americans made them as feared on the border as the Ku Klux Klan in the South.”
Whether this new thread will gain momentum remains to be seen but one thing is for sure. A conversation needs to be had.

The La Vida Baseball team discusses the issue.