This story is not about jihad, except for the kowtowing to the Left part. My latest in PJ Media:
The Atlanta Braves long ago retired Chief Noc-a-Homa, who used to emerge from a teepee in the outfield stands and do a dance every time a Braves player hit a home run, but they’re still not out of hot water with the Left for daring to persist in bearing the name Braves at all. And the Braves are duly contrite: they showed in their just-concluded National League Division Series that they’re ready to play ball with the Left and do whatever Leftists command them to do. More than one person is saying that’s why they got blown out by the Cardinals in the deciding game of that Series, 13-1.
It all started with an earnest Cardinals pitcher, Ryan Helsley, who, like Elizabeth Warren, hails from Oklahoma, and also like Warren, claims to be Native American. Unlike Warren, Helsley isn’t running for president and he isn’t trying to become a tenured professor at Harvard, so he has no need to pander to the prevailing identity politics of the Left, and his claim is almost certainly true. As a Native American, he is deeply offended by the Braves’ “tomahawk chop,” with which Braves fans serenade opposing players. Apparently under the impression that the tomahawk chop was an anthropological treatise, Helsley complained: “I think it’s a misrepresentation of the Cherokee people or Native Americans in general. Just depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren’t intellectual. They are a lot more than that.”
The young intellectual didn’t address the possibility that the whole thing might be in good fun. There is no fun, no joy, no humor on the Left these days, as the Ayatollah Khomeini remarked of another totalitarian imperative, Islam, back in the days when Henry Aaron was making Chief Noc-a-Homa dance practically every night. “There can be no fun or joy in anything serious,” said Khomeini, and today’s Left was listening.
Demonstrating more of his intellectual prowess, the grim, serious Helsley explained that he wasn’t bothered by Native Americans being mascots, and also that he was bothered: “It’s not me being offended by the whole mascot thing. It’s not. It’s about the misconception of us, the Native Americans, and it devalues us and how we’re perceived in that way, or used as mascots. The Redskins and stuff like that. That’s the disappointing part. That stuff like this still goes on. It’s just disrespectful, I think.”
Well, thinking is good, and if young Helsley did a bit more of it, he might realize just how ridiculous it is to think that sports team names such as Braves, Indians, Chiefs, and even Redskins are meant to be insulting and degrading to American Indians. This has become axiomatic today, but that doesn’t make it any truer. If it were true, Franciscan friars would be outraged at being thus degraded by the San Diego Padres. People of a certain stature would be reeling from the disrespect accorded them by the San Francisco Giants. Animal rights activists would be pressuring various sports franchises to stop degrading and disrespecting Lions and Tigers and Bears (and their Cubs), Eagles, and the like. Angels would be cursing a certain baseball team that likes to pretend it plays in Los Angeles.
The fact has been lost in our silly era, but in reality, sports teams took on their nicknames as declarations that they were aspiring to be as strong and fierce and noble as their mascots. The idea that teams took on the names of groups for which they had little respect, and thought ridiculous, or stupid, or evil in some way, is absurd. Teams took on their nicknames because they thought positively, not negatively, of the animal or human (or celestial) group in question.
There is much more. Read the rest here.
Angemon says
XD
mgoldberg says
I hope they toss that wonderful braves name and fine chop meme out and they call themselves the Atlanta JewBoys, for all I care. They can institute a meme of tossing a pile of Challahs (kneeded bread) in the air for every home run and slices of honey covered Challah for the whole dugout. The left will go nuts- their preferred choice of course, and the rest of us jews will simple wish them the best in the art of hitting, pitching and fielding, which is what it’s about on those fields of dreams.
The Left has no Fields of Dreams, only utopian madness and tyranny for all.
It’s a game, a wholesome game- baseball that is.
joydbrower says
Good point, Mr. Goldberg! In fact, teams might use all sorts of biblical names (and from both the Old & New Testaments!), and even religious denominations as you suggest! Of course, the Left uses every vehicle imaginable to decimate our republic and our society; so, at some point, we’re all going to have to say, “NO MAS!!” loudly and often!!
gravenimage says
Atlanta Braves Suffer Catastrophic Defeat After Kowtowing to the Left on Tomahawk Chop
………………..
Well, this is stupid. My husband was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, and the “Chop” was still on.
Some things really are insulting–this, not so much…
Phil Copson says
“…morally superior Cardinals….” ???
——————————————-
Even now Pope Francis must be hurrying over to Atlanta to apologise for the grave offence that the Roman Catholic church has given to sports-loving muslims everywhere by implying that God is rooting for any team in particular.
Following that, it will be time to apologise to Helsley (again) for the outrageous suggestion made by Mr Spencer that Helsley is “pandering to the identity politics of the Left.” As a proud Cherokee, Mr Helsley must surely be deeply offended by the implicit suggestion that he is involved in fur-trading with the white settlers, particularly as the panda is an endangered-species and is not, in any event, native to Atlanta….
(The panda too, is not completely out of the woods here and may also be forced to issue an apology – it’s rarity and provocative colouring make it unacceptable as a trade-gift to the Left on the grounds of “elitism” combined with “black-and-white supremacism”, while it’s habitual place of residence makes it an object of suspicion to the Right who suspect the panda of being a Communist sympathiser. Indeed, Donald Trump has recently tweeted that “those panda guys did not support us in WW2”.)
Battle says
mgoldberg hits nail on head. Good.
James Pierce says
Everybody should bring their own foam tomahawk and make sure the Chop is extra loud everytime this overgrown infant is pitching there
Paul J says
I wonder how proud his truly brave ancestors would be seeing one of their descendents carry on like a little school girl.
tgusa says
They won’t be able to satisfy the habitually angry cancel culture left without a human sacrifice so pick one and get to it.
infidel says
And Islam fishes in troubled waters such as these and milks max advantage in such situations. All over the world. Islam has completely hijacked the left and put them in their pockets of hatred and intolerance.
Wellington says
The Left ruins everything it touches—late-night comedy, the Constitution, marriage, the Boy Scouts, freedom, the NFL, education, patriotism, mascots, even pronouns. Oh yeah, it’s a very, very long list.
Let me put it plain like, to wit, if you’re a Leftist, you’re Scrooge before his redemption.
tgusa says
Absolutely!
Reziac says
Apparently our young intellectual is unaware that the term “Redskins” was coined BY Native Americans to refer to *themselves*.
AP says
Stupid is as Stupid does as Forest would say.
Charlie in NY says
Actually, these Braves were named as an inside joke. In 1912, the Boston National League team, a perennial doormat, was purchased by a New Yorker. The name is a reference to Tammany Hall, the notorious New York political machine whose mascot was Chief Tammany (a fictional Indian). The purpose was never to honor Indians but to rub the Bostonians’ noses with this declaration of a New York takeover. Then, in good old American fashion, this was all forgotten.
vlparker says
Brilliant piece of writing and logic.
Ray Jarman says
How about the Fighting Irish. Why aren’t they upset?
Giacomo Latta says
No one can complain that the people of Chicago use the nickname Black Hawks as an insult to that tribe. The team logo is by far the most beautiful of all team logos.
revereridesagain says
Being from Boston I know a few things about baseball curses. They will rue the day they mess with that name. Where are the “Boston Braves” and “Braves Field” today? And it took the Red Sox nearly 90 years to recover from the Curse of the Bambino.
Brenda says
‘It’s about misconception of us, the Native Americans, and it devalues us and how we’re perceived in that way or used as mascots.’ Really?
#1 So-called ‘Native Americans’, referred to in this article, are not NATIVE. They are descendants of migrants from Serbia.
#2 Anyone born in North, Central or South America are ALL NATIVE AMERICANS!
#3 Appropriation/imitation are the highest form of praise.
CONCLUSION: Grow-up and Get over it!
Brenda says
Correction: So-called ‘Native Americans’ come from Siberia not Serbia.