So Messed Up

Presumably, you've seen the images of a bunch of MAGA wearing, smirking teenaged boys harassing and mocking a Native American elder of the Omaha nation and Vietnam veteran.  There is a lot to unpack about that incident, even leaving aside the latest example of how Trump's own racism is cultivating racism in certain corners of our culture.  They weren't wearing those hats by accident.

First, the word privilege gets thrown around a lot, but Christ on a unicycle, is there a better representation of it than these well-off white boys surrounding this man to belittle him.  They figured there would no consequences for their actions, because they aren't really familiar for being held to the standards of common decency that most of the rest of the 21st century has landed on. Now that they are being held to these standards, that there could be an accountability moment, we will begin to hear how they are "the real victims here."  The movement from inoculated privilege to finding out that there is an emerging power dynamic that refuses to excuse abhorrent behavior from cruel boys is so unsettling to them, they begin to cloak themselves in the mantle of the oppressed.  As if they had any idea what this means, based on a few days of social media backlash.

What we are learning about their high school, Covington Christian, is very disturbing. Some of this gibes with the revelations from the Kavanaugh hearings about the stew of toxic masculinity burbling up from these all-male, mostly white, "elite" schools. My school was all white, all male and the seat of privilege for most of its existence.  As a student, there were some students of color, though not many.  Since my return to teach here, I've seen an increased willingness to struggle with these difficult questions.  Last year, we had a series of very ugly incidents - all anonymous - that prompted very hard conversations and unpleasant self-reflection.  I would lie if I said I wasn't worried about the coming week, as it is the anniversary of last year's ugliness. But the very presence of students of color, from America and around the world, and faculty of color means that we will not shy from having those conversations.  We have a context for this.

And maybe those conversations work.  Not for everyone.  Some of those MAGA-hat wearing assholes are assholes and no amount of teaching or modeling will stop them from being assholes.  Fundamentally, though, they are kids.  And kids need instruction.  They need shaping.  What we know about Covington Christian does not fill me with confidence that the right lessons will be learned.  They behaved this way because of the culture they come from, and I doubt returning to that culture will solve this.

Digital lynch mobs are not helpful.  These are still kids.  Shame does work, though.  The question is, are most of those young man capable of knowing shame over this incident? Who will be there to guide them through this experience?  There isn't a single faculty member of color at Covington Christian.  There are almost no students of color.  Who will be the voice to express how to come back from this?  Covington Christian has already failed these boys, and they will fail them again, most likely, by not having the resources to teach them why what they did was wrong and how to make restitution.  Their parents  - who selected the closest thing to a white's only school as they legally could - are also unlikely to be helpful.

But by all means... let's talk about how wrong this advertisement is.

UPDATE: In an interesting twist, Philips began the song in order to intercede between the Covington kids and a group of African American boys belonging to an unusual organization that I can't claim familiarity with.  The first interaction between the Covington boys and the Black Hebrew Israelites is basically distilled teenage boys expressing themselves through the violent lens of confrontation.  Everything that holds about the Covington boys applies to the BHI boys.  Nathan Philips was trying to prevent a bad event from happening, and for that, the Covington boys turned on him.

UPDATE 2: I think Josh Marshall's take is pretty much on point.  The context is some more confused than originally presented, but that doesn't exculpate the Covington Boys.