Obviously, the Tomahawk Chop Wasn't Going to Go Over Too Well With the Native American Identity Group

For the life of me I can't see how the New York Mets thought this was going to work out. I mean, they couldn't find another day for the event when the Atlanta Braves weren't going to be the visiting team?

See the New York Times, "Mets Alter Event, Upsetting American Indian Group":

It has not been an easy season for the Mets, who are lurching toward the All-Star break with a losing record. Opposition has come in the form of hard-throwing pitchers, mounting injuries and marathon-length games, but the team suddenly finds itself facing heat from an unexpected source: an American Indian organization.

When the Mets approached the American Indian Community House, a New York-based nonprofit organization, in March about helping to organize a Native American Heritage Day, the proposal struck members of the group as a good opportunity to celebrate their involvement in the community. A date was selected — July 25 — and they began to plan pregame festivities that would include traditional dancing and singing outside Citi Field.

But there was a glitch, as far as the Mets were concerned: they were scheduled to host the Atlanta Braves that day. 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. And now there won’t be any American Indians, either.

On Monday, the A.I.C.H. pulled out of the event, citing frustration with the Mets for thwarting months of planning. The team has removed the event from its online schedule of activities.

“Being a nonprofit in the city, we’re not in the business of making enemies,” said Kevin Tarrant, the deputy director of the A.I.C.H., which describes itself as an organization that aims to “cultivate awareness, understanding and respect” for thousands of American Indians who live in New York City. “This whole thing wasn’t even our idea. But it just feels like we’re being marginalized again within our own community.”

A Mets spokesman said the team “opted to forgo the group sale in this case as our multicultural days and nights are celebratory versus political in nature.”

The Mets host multicultural events throughout the season as a form of community outreach. During the first week of August, for example, the team will stage Irish Heritage Night and Taiwan Day.

Tarrant said his group originally hoped to hold the festivities in early June so that the game would coincide with an area powwow, a traditional American Indian gathering. But with the Mets on a road trip that week, the group suggested July 25 as another option. It was a 12:10 p.m. game, Tarrant said, which meant more children were likely to attend. Also, another powwow was planned for the following weekend in Queens.

That the Mets were scheduled to face the Braves that afternoon was coincidental, Tarrant said, though the group was not so naïve as to ignore the political overtones. Various groups have criticized the Braves for their use of American Indian imagery, in particular the team’s Tomahawk Chop chant.

“It wasn’t like we were planning to protest anything,” Tarrant said. “We just thought it would be great to show natives in a positive light — that we’re human beings, and we’re not from 300 years ago. We’re visible.” He added: “It was a win-win situation. We’d be supporting the Mets, the Braves and Major League Baseball.”

Right. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe the Mets should have just forgotten about multi-culti outreach to the Indian identity goons. You just can't make these people happy.

Here's more from further down at the report, about how the group was going to exploit the game to promote "cultural awareness":

As for the game, the A.I.C.H. began to promote it in early April. In an e-mail to the Indian Country Today Media Network, the group pitched the event as a “great opportunity to educate the public about the stereotypes professional sports teams continue to promote through logos, mascots and fan traditions, such as the ‘tomahawk chop.’ ” But if Mets officials harbored concerns with that type of language over the coming months, they chose not to express them publicly.

After the Indian group pulled out of the event this Tarrant dude blamed it all of hundreds of years of racism. Isn't it always? Sheesh...