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Mets Successfully Offend American Indian Group While Trying To Honor Them
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 10, 2013
Modified Jul 10, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 10, 2013
Modified Jul 10, 2013
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In the latest example of The Mets Will Always Be The Mets And They Will Mets Up Everything They Touch, the aforementioned Mets successfully offended an American Indian group while attempting to honor them with a heritage day. And best worst of all, they did so in order to protect the sensitive feelings of division rivals and Tomahawk Chop-chanting Atlanta Braves.
According to the Times, the Mets first reached out to nonprofit organization the American Indian Community House (AICH) in March about hosting an American Indian Heritage Night at Citi Field. They chose the date, July 25th, and started planning out the festivities, including traditional dancing and singing before the game. But then the Mets realized they were playing the Braves that night, and shit you not, decided it was best not to risk offending a baseball team who has routinely been criticized for its use of American Indian iconography:
So in the past week, concerned that such activities might be interpreted by the Braves organization as a form of protest over its nickname, the Mets drastically reduced the day's activities: no singing, no dancing.
The AICH was understandably confused about the Mets suddenly reneging on the promised festivities (no public-service announcements of any kind, no pregame festivities outside the stadium) this week—four months after they first approached them. This was the email they got in response from a member of the Mets’ group sales department:
“It was brought to my attention that we need to be sensitive to the Braves being a partner MLB team and can’t put them in a situation for a potentially negative environment to be brought upon them,” the Mets official wrote. “I know this is not the plan, but sometimes people come to events under different agendas than expected. I’m not referring to [A.I.C.H.] or any of the organizations involved, but more about unknown groups that may want to change the perception of the event.”
The Mets proposed two alternate dates (Aug. 8 against the Colorado Rockies and Aug. 25 against the Detroit Tigers), but considering the fact the AICH had already spent months planning a week's worth of activities around the Mets day, they declined and pulled out of the event entirely. They also probably reasoned that, this being the Mets, who knows whether they might suddenly decide they needed to be more culturally sensitive to tigers and mountains or whatever.
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American Indian Community House
baseball
mets
mlb
native americans
sports
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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