With skyrocketing crime and inflation, a steady exodus of sane people from her state, and test scores of students in the state plummeting, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-Planned Parenthood) and her henchmen have turned their attention to the most burning issue of our day: sports team mascots that offend the woke. Now New York’s remaining residents can look around at their smoking ruin of a state, as they watch the people who broke into their house drive off in their car and console themselves with the thought that nowhere in their formerly green and pleasant land is anyone being traumatized because there’s a sports team around called the “Indians.”
The Albany Times-Union reported Tuesday that “the New York Board of Regents has officially banned all uses of images and names for school mascots related to indigenous people.” At this late date in the wokeification of America, there wasn’t even any controversy over this: “The board voted unanimously Tuesday morning, without discussion.”
This was the culmination of a process that has been going on for a good while: “The proposal was announced by the state Education Department in November, and education officials have been urging school boards to begin the process to change mascot images and names ever since.” Why is anyone on the New York Board of Regents paying attention to this matter at all? Because, you see, fans of teams called the Indians and Chiefs and Braves and even Redskins never realized it, but all the time they were rooting for their teams, they were really indulging in an act of hate.
In the Left’s view, you see, people name their sports teams after things they despise. That idea is so ridiculous that some New York schools tried to push back against the New York Board of Regents’ decision. The Times-Union noted that some schools that had Native American-related mascots “argued that their use of mascots that referred to indigenous people as warriors or raiders was a term of respect.” However, an “advisory group member said that was clearly not true.” Clearly not true? Really? So the St. Louis Cardinals have contempt for little red birds? The San Diego Padres are mocking Franciscan friars? The Boston Red Sox intend to ridicule the very concept of wearing scarlet hose? The Utah Jazz only dig Beethoven, not Miles Davis? The Miami Dolphins hate charming big fish?
The answer to all those questions and other like them, according to the New York Board of Regents, is apparently yes. The Times-Union quoted an unnamed member of one of these unnamed advisory groups asserting that “what school districts have done… was to stereotype indigenous people, act like they were exterminated, and then suggest that using the stereotyped images and phrases would teach ‘the revering of an exterminated group.’” Oh. Well, that certainly does explain it.
This is Leftist pseudo-reasoning of the most ridiculous kind. This individual is claiming that naming a sports team after Native Americans unfairly stereotyped them, but as what? As courageous, brave, fearless, and noble? How horrible! Then they “act like they were exterminated.” How’s that again? Are the Detroit Lions acting like lions were exterminated? Are the Cleveland Browns telling us that the color brown is no longer available? Are the Dallas Cowboys meaning to imply that cowboys no longer walk the earth?
The reasoning behind the New York Board of Regents’ decision is entirely absurd, and it’s telling that no one there had the courage or wit to imitate the Indian braves of old and stand up and say so. The war against mascots is also completely inconsistent. There are ongoing efforts to force the Minnesota Vikings to change their name because the name “Viking” supposedly glorifies colonialism and white supremacism. But if the “Viking” name glorifies whiteness, why don’t the “Chief” or “Warrior” or “Indian” names glorify Native Americans? The war against mascots is, in other words, simply another Leftist effort to make Americans generally ashamed of their own culture and heritage. A nation that is ashamed won’t have the will to defend itself.
Related: ESPN Invites Wrath of Woke Gods, Mistakenly Refers to Cleveland Guardians as ‘Indians’
In New York, however, the Oneida Indian Nation has bought into all this nonsense and applauded the Board of Regents’ move: “Native American organizations, civil rights groups, and public health organizations have made clear the damage that the mascotization of Native people has on our youth. Promoting inclusivity and mutual respect is the best way to unify our communities moving forward.”
It is highly doubtful that the Oneida Nation or anyone else could produce an actual person who had actually been damaged by “mascotization,” but the Left has never much cared for actual evidence anyway. And so kudos to Hochul and company for saving New York yet again from what truly ails it.
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