Racists at March for Life Rally Harass Native Americans

[AGBF]

The New York Times published a follow-up about the events leading up to moment captured between the Native American elder and the high school students. After seeing additional footage and reading witness interviews, I don’t really know what to think.

What we do know:

• There was a shouting match between the students and a group of black activists. Both sides accuse the other of starting the confrontation.
• Chaperones claimed that the students were shouting school slogans and denied that any shouted, “Build the wall.” The Native American group said they did hear, “Build the wall.”
• The Native American group saw what was going on and approached the students with a prayer circle to defuse the situation.
• Some students made sounds like they were mocking the Native Americans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/us/nathan-phillips-covington.html

I had seen allusions in other writing about the incident to young black men who were reading from the Bible. Apparently some religious black youths were present and their intentions were not understood by the Catholic young men protesting abortion. I have no idea which event the young men from the Hebrew Israelite group were attending. This gets more fantastic at every turn. But I guess we are called the melting pot for a reason. I'm just kidding around. I embrace our diversity.

 

[JPie]

I had seen allusions in other writing about the incident to young black men who were reading from the Bible. Apparently some religious black youths were present and their intentions were not understood by the Catholic young men protesting abortion. I have no idea which event the young men from the Hebrew Israelite group were attending. This gets more fantastic at every turn. But I guess we are called the melting pot for a reason. I'm just kidding around. I embrace our diversity.

From the video posted by someone in the Black Hebrew Israelite group, they clearly said some terrible things to the Native American group like “your land was taken from you because you worship animals.” They also made some homophobic comments to the high school group about Trump. I don’t know what prompted them to say those things but frankly the things they said were terribly racist and bigoted.

 

[AGBF]

I hear you, JPie. But the Hebrew Israelites were apparently there, reading the Bible in public, because they had some moral point they wanted to make. It may not be one I agree with, but I don't agree with interfering with a woman's freedom over her own body, which the Catholic young men wanted, either. I am sick of seeing myself jump to conclusions regarding people of other cultures about whom I know nothing. I want to take a 30 second break before I have to analyze this new group.

 

[JPie]

I am sick of seeing myself jump to conclusions about people of other cultures whom I know nothing about. I want to take a 30 second break before I have to analyze this new group.

That’s fair enough.

 

[partgypsy]

It is possible that this kid was unaware or ignorant that standing and staring like that, was an aggressive move (for me, staring like that even 10 seconds at a stranger seems confrontational). And it sounds like from what that other group was saying, in turn with what the native Americans heard the students saying, it could have turned ugly. I do believe the native Americans and Phillips was trying to defuse the tension and prevent violence, by distracting the kids from engaging with the other group. I think it is very poor judgement on the adults part, to bring white male high schoolers, wearing maga hats (which honestly, on it's own is hostile) to a march, where they may encounter people different from them, and they do not have the maturity and life experience to handle it. The lack of adult supervision is astonishing. The kids are lucky there wasn't violence.

 

[elle_chris]

I don't care what the Church's view is on reproductive rights. It's beyond creepy to bring teenage boys to a march, against what adult women still have a right to do! I mean seriously creepy.
A little common sense could have prevented this entire thing.

As it stands, I have no idea what really happened, but all I see is a teenage boy refusing to move, and staring down an elderly man. It's not a good look.

 

[Tekate]

I watched the entire tape of the interaction between the black Hebrew Israelites, the Native Americans, and the Catholic school boys. I have several thoughts.

The black Israelites guys made clear at one point that they were not yelling to antagonize, they were yelling to be heard by everyone. The black Israelites men used homophobic terms such as "faggot" and called the Catholic white boys 'incestuous' 'crackers' (they used that one a lot), the Black Israelites were VERY VERY well versed in the bible and the 10 commandments. The Black Israelites beefs were several that they had backup for. 1) their people were ripped from their lands and America is great on the backs of black slaves 2) Catholic's worship false idiols, I think I remember that Martin Luther frowned mightily on the worship of Mary. 3) In listening to the Black Israelites I heard anger of being a lesser citizen than whites, their rejection of the teaching that Jesus was white. Basically to me the group REALLY is about following the bible word for word and their interpretation of the words, their disgust and being tired of white privilege.. white privilege was in every word just about out of their mouths.

The Native Americans - are about peace and prayers and belief in Native American teachings, the Black Israelites taunted the Native Americans with terms like "the bible says worshipping eagles is against God" "your land was taken from you and your people killed by the whites"..

The Catholic white boys, well they were being white boys & catholic - at this point in their lives (and probably always for their lives imho) they are WHITE, they are right, they want to Make America Great Again, which is: We are right, you are wrong, the usual white privilege stuff.

The Native American leader WAS trying to keep the white boys from the black men to avoid a physical confrontation, that was apparent.

The Catholic white boys WERE making fun of the Native Amercan leader and mocked his chanting. It's easy to do if you grow up being fed that your God, your skin, your beliefs are better and more pure than ANY OTHERS and the only RIGHT ones. ALSO, the boys looked to me to all be under the age of 18 and should not have been doing what they were doing but were - what appeared after over and hour of watching the video - not accompanied by adult leaders. Now when I was in high school there were times when we had 'free time' on field trips etc so while I FAULT the school I cannot say that it is always necessary to have adults watching 16 year old boys, although given that this was an Indigenous People's March on the same weekend/at the same time as the March For Life group. throw in 5 Black American Israelites spreading their hate words, with a bunch of high school MAGA hat wearing, anti-abotion, WHITE boys from a Catholic school from Kentucky and one can see it was ripe for confrontation and maybe physical violence.

Where were the cops????? my first thought.. Second, where the adults?????? my third was WTF!!!!!..

On show in my opinion was White Privilege at it's usual ugly self, Black men who mixed up the bible with black anger about how they have been treated for centuries and Indigenous people who are mostly peaceful and wish for their land back and for peace.

The most wrong in my opinion was the Catholic Boys School for not corralling their youth. Second the Black Israelite guys, they knew better than to engage with teens but the boys played right into their scenario, those guys were very good at really, really slicing beliefs and getting to the boys. The Native Americans sadly got caught up in 'peace'.

Trump brought this all to the forefront and we are now a society that is verbal and loud about things that were never said before but thought by many American's. So be it. But I hope we all learn something and we soon start to have discussion/dialog with our youth and bring them back to earth and teach them HISTORY.

 

[AGBF]

Kate-

I am still not ready to take the plunge you did and attempt to analyze the entire situation, but I laud you for doing so. As always, you bring a thoughtful, reasoned response to this very complicated clash of social groups.

I am glad you are here on Pricescope.

Deb

 

[Matata]

My gift to the principal of the high school and the leaders of the 4 churches of the Black Hebrews:

 

[GliderPoss]

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019...-maga-trump-supporters-what-happened/10730988

This article suggests a different perspective. Interesting to see how differently the senario has been interpreted by various news outlets...

 

[Calliecake]

Has any one seen the pictures from a basketball game that took place at this school a few years ago? Google “Covington Catholic Basketball”.

 

[Matata]

Has any one seen the pictures from a basketball game that took place at this school a few years ago?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covington-catholic-black-paint/

 

[AGBF]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covington-catholic-black-paint/

I went to the snopes link. If I am interpreting it correctly, some people at 2012 Covington High School basketball game painted their bodies black. The reason why they did so has been disputed. Some members of their community claim it is tradition; others assert it is obviously racist and invokes blackface and minstrel shows.

At the very least it is tone deaf and insensitive.

I disagree that all the controversy among the clashing groups (white boys from the Covington School in Kentucky, the Hebrew Israelites, and the Native Americans) was caused by religion. I think that much more than religion was dividing these three groups.

In fact, a specific religion is often shared by people who already share a common culture and have common goals that would motivate them to act in certain ways regardless of whether religion was involved.

 

[FinleysMom]

Fake news...a set up.

 

[soxfan]

"Everything I don't like is fake news."- Conservatives.

 

[cmd2014]

I found this an interesting read:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/worl...ur-own-eyes/ar-BBSAkJo?li=AAggNb9&ocid=ASUDHP

I don't think you can miss the smugness of the white teen boy as the video clearly shows that he had huge amounts of space with which to back down or step to the side and make way for the Native American Elder - but chooses not to. Whether this is a macho display of white privilege or not wanting to seem like a wimp in front of his peers or something else, I found it offensive. I found it doubly so when he suggested that the Elder should take greater care about whose personal space he chooses to invade. Not to mention the racist and culturally insensitive tomahawk chops that the rest of the group were doing, the filming of someone without their consent (which is a huge no-no for people of other cultures), and the fact that school spirit cheers of any kind are hugely inappropriate to be doing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Show some respect. For your elders. For other cultures. For the weight of history. For the solemness that is the Lincoln Memorial and all it represents. For the fact that someone was trying to help. Clearly there were no adults in that crowd.

I also agree with the grossness of shipping white adolescent boys wearing dog whistle attire for racism and misogyny to Washington to protest an adult woman's fundamental right to choose what happens to her body. Have some respect for women too while you are at it. Because let's be real. If it's against your beliefs to do it, you won't. You don't need to force everyone else to believe what you do. Since these same people get mad if they feel that people of other faiths are pushing their beliefs onto them, you'd think they'd know enough to stop pushing their beliefs onto others.

 

[JPie]

SMH. Covington kids yelled “It’s not rape if you like it!” to a group of girls. Can’t wait to see how the kid’s PR firm spins this.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1087712015060209664?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1087712015060209664&ref_url=https://s9e.github.io/iframe/twitter.min.html#1087712015060209664

 

[soxfan]

I watched every single video. NONE of them exhonorated the little shits. This entire country is being gaslighted. And they love it. #owningthelibs

 

[cmd2014]

I watched every single video. NONE of them exhonorated the little shits. This entire country is being gaslighted. And they love it. #owningthelibs

I have too, and I agree with you. They were behaving badly and the chaperones were not doing anything. And the other video is horrifying. I'd say these parents should be ashamed, but I don't think they will be.

ETA: Nope. Not ashamed at all. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/worl...-their-boys/ar-BBSzob6?li=AAggNb9&ocid=ASUDHP

 

[JPie]

I watched every single video. NONE of them exhonorated the little shits. This entire country is being gaslighted. And they love it. #owningthelibs

My initial assumption was that the students approached and harassed the Native American elder. When I learned that was not the case, I thought I had unfairly judged the students as an unruly mob and retracted my comment about them being racists.

The additional info coming out certainly doesn't paint those kids in a more favorable light and I suspect that I was right about them being racists.

Regardless, I think that allowing new information to shape one's opinions is not necessarily about being gas-lighted and more about valuing the truth over media spin.

 

[Tekate]

@AGBF Thank you Deb!!! that is way more than I deserve. I feel the same about you and what you post and feel it's always good to post about these topics and you always do.. Must be something about us being Hip chicks! Thank you so much Deb, you made my year.

Kate-

I am still not ready to take the plunge you did and attempt to analyze the entire situation, but I laud you for doing so. As always, you bring a thoughtful, reasoned response to this very complicated clash of social groups.

I am glad you are here on Pricescope.

Deb

 

[Calliecake]

I see the President tweeted about how unfairly these kids were treated. Tr

I fail to see how any adult with a functioning brain who looked at the pictures from the basketball game didn’t see this for what it is. One of the kids painted black drew large white lips on himself.

 

[Calliecake]

I watched every single video. NONE of them exhonorated the little shits. This entire country is being gaslighted. And they love it. #owningthelibs

The Covington Catholic smirk kid is going to be on the Today Show tomorrow morning. This kid and his classmates are invited to the White House. SMDH

 

[paperunicorn]

I think this quote from Mr. Phillips says it all - also! It's important to note that what he was doing was SINGING, not chanting. Indigenous American music is often mischaracterized as "chanting" in an effort (deliberate or otherwise) to denigrate its complexity and lyricality

"While I was there singing, I heard them saying ‘Build that wall! Build that wall!’, you know... this is indigenous land! ...We're not supposed to have walls here, we never did—for millennium. Before anybody else came here we never had walls. We never had a prison. We always took care of our elders, we took care of our children. We always provided for them, you know. We taught them right from wrong. I wish I could see that energy of the young mass, the young men, put their energy into making this into a really great country."​

 

[redwood66]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/...le=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

 

[Maria D]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/opin...ong-on-a-catholic-school-trip-beck/index.html

 

[redwood66]

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/23...ail&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-ad02127c51-83959769

 

[House Cat]

When i was in catholic school in the 80’s, the boys loved to flip up the skirts to our uniforms. Obviously, this was humiliating to us girls. The boy’s behavior became epidemic. The school handled it by instructing the girls to wear shorts under their skirts.

Not one boy was ever punished for his behavior.

My boyfriend who went to the catholic high school was jumped by some boys and was severely injured. He and his friends did a drive by on the houses of the boys who assaulted him. They had the money for the guns and the privilege to never get caught.

My 8th grade year, the boys would do drugs and come to school high as can be. They would steal their mom’s car and drive to all of their friend’s houses while other parents were home. No one ever called their parents to report their behavior..because well..boys will be boys.

They were “good catholic boys.” They loved God by going to mass every day and by having nuns for teachers. It didn’t matter if they did wrong outside of school/church because their souls would be set right once they washed themselves with holy water and genuflected in front of dead Jesus in the morning.

This is how catholic school boy entitlement is grown.

 

[lovedogs]

I was wondering when someone would cry "fake news" to defend the indefensible. This is beyond depressing.

 

[telephone89]

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/23...ail&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-ad02127c51-83959769

"For the social justice left, including many mainstream media figures, holding conservative views on abortion or marriage automatically makes you a bigot."

This is absolutely not true.
One can oppose abortion - for THEMSELVES. Totally fine. I know many people who would never think of having one. But they don't impose that on others.
One can believe that marriage is only for a man and a woman. But to impose that on others - like, I dunno, via an employment contract especially while it's now law - is awful.
Not surprising this article (all about how white males are so unfairly labelled) is a white male.