Whole video paints a very different picture, but blame still needs to be put on a particular smirking kid
This week we were all introduced to a new person, a child wearing a blood red hat.
While it may be easy to throw bricks and be rightfully pissed off at his apparent disrespect, does requesting this teenager’s name be released and millions of people shaming him online, really fix the problem? Secondly, and more importantly, how did this all start?
Last Friday, after The Indigenous People’s March, a group of Covington Catholic High School students were seen interacting with Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribal elder, while he drummed and sang. One student stood inches in front of Phillips, smirking the whole time.
According to a longer video of the whole incident, the conflict initiated with a group of Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI) and the students, who can be seen doing school chants. Phillips came into the situation later with a group, seeking to de-escalate the situation, according to his own testimony.
The action of the main students should be condemned, especially the apparent disrespect for Phillips. However, it should be noted who approached who: Phillips’ group approached the students and the BHI.
The BHI group deserves more attention too. In my opinion, the actions of a group of high school students pale in comparison to some of the things the BHI group stated.
The whole interaction started with the Covington Catholic students doing school cheers, with one student taking off his shirt (sighs) to pump up his classmates. During that, however, a speaker for BHI can be heard yelling, “Put a bra on.”
Later, one of the speakers for BHI said, “On the back of your dollar bills you put ‘In God we Trust,’ but you give f—— rights.”
Black Hebrew Israelites speaker talking to Covington Catholic students
An adult fat shaming a high schooler, lovely.
Later, one of the speakers for BHI said, “On the back of your dollar bills you put ‘In God We Trust,’ but you give f—— rights.”
Why isn’t this the main story, or at least a huge part of it? This is blatant homophobia. It is disgusting and terrible to hear something like this in 2019. A group that has been condemned, the Covington Catholic students, condemned these people right away for what they were saying, with one student responding, “They are people too.”
At one point in the over 90-minute video, the BHI speakers even singled out a black student within the students and condemned them for being friends with white people, who hugged him after those statements were made.
“Get out n—–! Get out n—–!” was what they yelled at this teenager.
With that being said, anything else they say should be taken with a grain of salt, even though they did say things that were accurate to some degree. This includes bringing up the fact that the United States is stolen land, which is painfully very true.
No, I am not saying the students are innocent, but they are children, and shaming them is not going to fix anything.
But as adults in this situation interacting with a group of children, they hold a greater responsibly for their words and actions.
No, I am not saying the students are innocent, but they are children, and shaming them is not going to fix anything. Sure, most of them were wearing “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hats, and one of them appeared very disrespectful toward Phillips. They will pay for that with their fame. Today, I even saw the identity of the main student be exposed on Twitter. Multiple times I saw threats to punch the kid in the face.
If threatening to hit David Hogg (Parkland shooting survivor) is wrong, and you better believe it is, then threatening to hit this kid is just as wrong. Political beliefs don’t exclude that morale.
However, stating that they started it, or that they were provoking this group is incorrect. Furthermore, the group that should be accepting responsibility for this interaction should be the BHI group. This president has done everything in his power to divide us, and it has worked beautifully.