NIMBYites

When New York State's Board of Regents spiked and forever forbade logos, mascots and all Native American conjuring names and imagery from its school sports teams, they no doubt felt they were doing the Lord's work and were on the right side of history.

There was precedent in Major League baseball, the NFL, and even college basketball at St John's, where the Redmen became Red Storms.

Massapequa, on Long Island, was originally settled by Native Americans, and was home to the "Chiefs.” For some reason, this word was deemed demeaning, though not by the Native Americans themselves, who were never asked. Their agreement, consent or direction were not sought. It was as though the hacks in Albany had seized cultural power of attorney over the wishes and affairs of a custodial client of unsound mind.

When advocates get an itch, they must scratch. Sometimes they create itches as an excuse to scratch, and they don't bother seeking the body's permission.

The Native American Guardians Association didn't like being patronized by uninvited champions and complained that the compulsory elimination of the name "Chiefs" was a violation of federal antidiscrimination law. The state, supported by some opportunistic civil libertarians, had justified their action on the grounds that the mascots and logos were degrading stereotypes that perpetuated the bitter legacy of colonialism and subjugation. 

Late last month, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights determined that the New York State Board of Regents had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that districts may forfeit federal funding if they don't relent.

Linda McMahon, the World Wrestling Entertainment executive who has been reinvented as our secretary of education, visited Massapequa's high school. "The Trump administration will not stand idly by as state leaders attempt to eliminate the history and culture of Native American tribes…. Rather than focus on learning outcomes, the Department of Education and Board of Regents has its sights on erasing Massapequa's history," she said.

It was a championship match to determine who truly respects the Native Americans more, and the belt was a poor fit for the waists of all concerned. Instead of getting bent out of shape over iconography, there should be a massive rescue operation to revive the languages and chronicles of indigenous peoples, who were not culturally monolithic.

The attention to logos, mascots and team names is shallow and diversionary. The reclamation of identity cannot be left to proxies, whose sympathy is often calculated and patronizing lip-service advancing only themselves.

Self-determination cannot be farmed out.

"They put your mind right in a bag and take it wherever they want.” "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.” These two indictments are as grand and artistically accurate as the sculpted muscles on a Michelangelo masterpiece. They were written by the seer Malcolm X, who would have turned 100 last month.

He was a keen detector of deceit and hypocrisy. He knew that many "liberals" who tried to ingratiate themselves in the Black empowerment movement were secretly and connivingly fierce upholders of their domination, whose enticements and appeals to comradeship were really sleights of hand. They would raise their fists, sloganize and turn out at public demonstrations, but retreat to their gated communities where the alarms would sound if any Black person penetrated the security perimeter.

"Not in my backyard.” Malcolm X was wise to faux comradeship. He realized that some were like enemy soldiers clothed in friendly uniforms to join the freedom movement as double agents.

He was not the plush toy of two-timing "benefactors" who unyieldingly grip to their seats of power, while offering collapsible chairs with cyanide-tipped nails just below the upholstery to the dispossessed people they patronize, in the hope they won't notice. 

Under those terms, questing for common ground is devious racketeering.

Malcolm X likened many "liberals" to foxes whose bared teeth resemble an alluring smile to unsuspecting Black people, who run straight into the foxes' treacherous mouths when chased by the snarling wolves, were like conservatives who never pretended to be disinclined to predation.

Frequently one's proclaimed saviors are more dangerous, albeit more nuanced, than one's avowed mortal foes.

Malcolm X was a no-nonsense guy, nobody's dupe or pawn, not for hire, sale or lease, and not my favorite apostle or voice for human rights. But to his infinite credit, he didn't apologize for his existence to anyone. Those who tread uneasily on today's university quads should follow. When under assault, neither peace doves as logo, nor patsies as mascot.

For argument's sake, let's concede we know exactly who the marginalized people are, and not fret over the exclusions. 

Although the travails of Black and Native American people are set in permanent stone, the conscription of new classes of victims is perpetual and global. Things change and remain the same at the same time. The rest of us may be next or perhaps already are. But let's take a breather from the continuum of historical injustices and indulge a bit in another vain search for mundane truths.

First: Now that the City's Bloomberg-era high-profile campaign of restaurant inspections, driven by its solicitous penchant for the common good, has lost its luster, and compliance enforcement has gone the way of rotary telephones, have the sanitary standards lapsed?

I've seen restaurants post their letter-graded flyers in some ingenious, even comical places, such upside-down like flags of nations in distress or peeking out from behind local advertiser and civil association announcements. Neither the government nor New Yorkers takes these "Grade Pending" notices seriously. If the program has lost its meaning, let's drop it and stop pretending.

Second: Why is the reportedly $40 trillion national deficit ballooning like an aortic aneurysm poised to burst, such a supposedly lethal threat to our nation that demands draconian intervention and sacrifices from the next 10 generations?

Leaders often hide behind real or concocted budget crises as a pretext for austerity, so they don't have to confront the social agonies of the masses and can be freed to divert and enrich their cronies. Particularly after wars and depressions, countries have pleaded catastrophic poverty, only to emerge economically more robust than ever just a few years later.

Are the Laws of Economy truly as immutable as the Laws of Nature (and the Law of Convenience)? What would happen if the U.S. simply walked away from its debt. Enlighten us, readers of The Chief!