By The United States is often called a melting pot, where different religions, ethnic groups, and races form the strongest democracy in the world. Americans have fought for civil rights for over a century and a half. This movement struggled and battled for the idea that all our citizens are Americans, regardless of their background.
After the Supreme Court ruled that elite universities could no longer discriminate against Asian applicants, Joe Biden held a press conference in which he said that “diversity is our strength” and that the American promise is big enough for everyone.
Now, as America gears up to host the Olympics, the president has announced that rather than have Native Americans, who are citizens of the United States, compete under the Stars and Stripes, they should compete under their own ethnic flag.
Joe Biden, who was accused of working with segregationists by Vice President Kamala Harris, has adopted the ethic of “separate but equal” when it comes to US Lacrosse.
President Biden on Wednesday announced his support for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy — a league of Indigenous nations in the United States and Canada — competing under their own flag in lacrosse at the 2028 Summer Olympics. His endorsement challenges traditional representation at the international competition and is seen as a step toward a historic moment for a team that has long fought for global recognition, reports The Washington Post.
The 2028 Los Angeles Games will be the first time lacrosse has been officially contested at the Olympics in more than a century, and the Haudenosaunee’s participation would honor their long legacy in the sport, which descends from a game their ancestors created nearly a thousand years ago. Their team, the Haudenosaunee Nationals, is ranked third in the world in men’s field lacrosse, eighth for women’s field and has won bronze at the past three World Lacrosse Men’s Championships. (Lacrosse will be played in a style known as sixes at the Olympics.)
“Their ancestors invented the game. They perfected it for a millennia,” Biden said at the Tribal Nations Summit in Washington.
“Their circumstances are unique, and they should be granted an exception to field their own team at the Olympics,” he said, calling their players “among the very best in the world.”
Canada’s sports minister, of course, supported Biden’s statement that ethnic groups in multiethnic and diverse democracies should separate themselves from their fellow citizens.
“Lacrosse is Canada’s national summer sport,” said Qualtrough in a written statement to The Canadian Press. “It has been played by Indigenous peoples for hundreds of years. The Haudenosaunee Nationals are among the best in the world.
“When lacrosse returns to the Olympics in the 2028 Games, I hope to see the Haudenosaunee Nationals qualify and compete under their own flag.”
Sports Illustrated reports, “For over 30 years, the Haudenosaunee—formerly known as the Iroquois Nationals—have sent a team to the World Lacrosse Championship and other tournaments under their own flag.
Competing independently of the United States and Canada, the Great Lakes-based Native American and First Nations tribe has won bronze medals at each of the three most recent world championships. They’re currently ranked third in the world, behind only the American and Canadian teams.”
If the IOC permits them to participate, the Haudenosaunee would be the first Indigenous group to qualify for the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee has thus far been unwilling to grant an exception, telling NPR: “Only National Olympic Committees (NOCs) recognized by the IOC can enter teams for the Olympic Games in accordance with the Olympic Charter. This means it is up to the two NOCs concerned (USA and Canada) — in coordination with World Lacrosse and the National Federations concerned — to decide if they include athletes from Haudenosaunee in their respective teams depending on the passport they hold.”
NPR revealed the strange liberal mindset that Native Americans should not be considered American (or Canadian), comparing the group to stateless people who fled war, writing “there is a precedent for an exception to the IOC rules: the IOC allowed a team of refugees to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.”
[Read More: Biden Hiding Where He’s Sending ‘Aid’]
