Hey, I'm posting! What do you know? Still breathing.
The reason I am posting is that I would like to inform the billions of people who aggressively don't read this that: TWO AND EVEN MORE THINGS CAN BE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME.
You've seen it if you waste your life on Twitter like me. Some truly awful humans from a Catholic (only capitalizing to differentiate it from the much nicer non-capitalized word and definitely not out of respect) high school in Covington, KY went to DC to participate in the March For Life (same parenthetical as above). Somehow, and I'm thinking the MAGA hats they were wearing realllly helped, they got involved in a confrontation with Black Hebrew Israelites, which I confess I had never heard of before yesterday, and a Native American group. Everything was filmed from different angles on various cellphone cameras because progress? and the episode was posted to Twitter. Then the carnage began (no violence of any kind occurred during the incident).
At first, from the editing of the initial video, it seemed that the Covington kids were very much instigators. All you saw was a Native American man drumming, with a MAGA kid staring at him and smiling with a creepier grin than anything Eli Roth has ever imagined in his worst nightmares. There was a tomahawk chop chant going on in the background, and various other non-specific things being yelled. Twitterers immediately said that "Build The Wall" was one of the things they heard, and a short video of the Native American man, Nathan Phillips, in tears, was later posted where he said that "Build The Wall" had been chanted, but I did not hear that. Some more short videos from other angles were posted that showed the same scene.
The response from Twitter was truly mind-boggling. Every celebrity you've ever heard of and many you've never heard of and people who are not famous except on Twitter and people who are not famous at all joined in the condemnation of the Covington kids. I posted that the Covington diocese had settled for one of the largest amounts to that point in the clergy abuse scandal back in 2005, demonstrating that the moral high ground was not exactly at Mt. Mitchell levels in that particular corner of Appalachia, but that's all I posted, trying to await the backlash to the backlash to the backlash before going any further.
It took a little while, but the backlash sure did come. The most convincing was a post that stitched together about 30 minutes to an hour of video from the Black Hebrew Israelites and others. The BHI were not pleased with the MAGA hats at all, and hurled abuse at them for several minutes. The Covington kids didn't do much in return, gathering in a group, and then doing some school chants. Then, the Native American group led by Phillips appeared, with Phillips beating his drum. He definitely moved toward the Covington kids, not the other way around. They were still chanting, including the execrable Tomahawk Chop, while Phillips drummed. Then he approached the kid with the nightmare smile and drummed directly at him with both making eye contact with each other the entire uncomfortable 2 or 3 minutes. Then it was over.
Phillips later released a statement saying that he was trying to defuse the confrontation between BHI and the Covington kids, and he characterized the BHI as "prey" and the Covington kids as "predators." An anonymous Covington student released a statement saying that they did nothing wrong and were just waiting for their buses when all this transpired around them and to them. The backlash to the backlash then followed, with many saying the Covington student was lying, citing various snippets of video that I was too exhausted to go and check. That's all still going on right now, and I haven't become any less exhausted.
Here's what I wanted to say: it is true that the Covington kids and the adults who arranged this trip are terrible (they wore MAGA hats to a pro-life rally and chanted the Tomahawk Chop, and that grin...I mean it will haunt me for months) and it is also true that as terrible as they are, they did not incite violence or make racist remarks on top of the inherent racism of the Tomahawk Chop chant, which by the way, Kansas City Chiefs fans also did throughout the AFC Championship game on Sunday. It is also true that Nathan Phillips approached the students and not the other way around. It is also true the BHI were hurling insults at the students. It is also true that none of the adults with the Covington group seemed to step up and do anything. It is also true that the Catholic Church is a moral cesspool and that Native Americans are the victims of genocide and that whatever the BHI is, it consists of African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved for hundreds of years by the ancestors of at least a few of the Covington kids.
All of these things are true. What are we going to do about it? I don't know, but tweeting is not enough.
The reason I am posting is that I would like to inform the billions of people who aggressively don't read this that: TWO AND EVEN MORE THINGS CAN BE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME.
You've seen it if you waste your life on Twitter like me. Some truly awful humans from a Catholic (only capitalizing to differentiate it from the much nicer non-capitalized word and definitely not out of respect) high school in Covington, KY went to DC to participate in the March For Life (same parenthetical as above). Somehow, and I'm thinking the MAGA hats they were wearing realllly helped, they got involved in a confrontation with Black Hebrew Israelites, which I confess I had never heard of before yesterday, and a Native American group. Everything was filmed from different angles on various cellphone cameras because progress? and the episode was posted to Twitter. Then the carnage began (no violence of any kind occurred during the incident).
At first, from the editing of the initial video, it seemed that the Covington kids were very much instigators. All you saw was a Native American man drumming, with a MAGA kid staring at him and smiling with a creepier grin than anything Eli Roth has ever imagined in his worst nightmares. There was a tomahawk chop chant going on in the background, and various other non-specific things being yelled. Twitterers immediately said that "Build The Wall" was one of the things they heard, and a short video of the Native American man, Nathan Phillips, in tears, was later posted where he said that "Build The Wall" had been chanted, but I did not hear that. Some more short videos from other angles were posted that showed the same scene.
The response from Twitter was truly mind-boggling. Every celebrity you've ever heard of and many you've never heard of and people who are not famous except on Twitter and people who are not famous at all joined in the condemnation of the Covington kids. I posted that the Covington diocese had settled for one of the largest amounts to that point in the clergy abuse scandal back in 2005, demonstrating that the moral high ground was not exactly at Mt. Mitchell levels in that particular corner of Appalachia, but that's all I posted, trying to await the backlash to the backlash to the backlash before going any further.
It took a little while, but the backlash sure did come. The most convincing was a post that stitched together about 30 minutes to an hour of video from the Black Hebrew Israelites and others. The BHI were not pleased with the MAGA hats at all, and hurled abuse at them for several minutes. The Covington kids didn't do much in return, gathering in a group, and then doing some school chants. Then, the Native American group led by Phillips appeared, with Phillips beating his drum. He definitely moved toward the Covington kids, not the other way around. They were still chanting, including the execrable Tomahawk Chop, while Phillips drummed. Then he approached the kid with the nightmare smile and drummed directly at him with both making eye contact with each other the entire uncomfortable 2 or 3 minutes. Then it was over.
Phillips later released a statement saying that he was trying to defuse the confrontation between BHI and the Covington kids, and he characterized the BHI as "prey" and the Covington kids as "predators." An anonymous Covington student released a statement saying that they did nothing wrong and were just waiting for their buses when all this transpired around them and to them. The backlash to the backlash then followed, with many saying the Covington student was lying, citing various snippets of video that I was too exhausted to go and check. That's all still going on right now, and I haven't become any less exhausted.
Here's what I wanted to say: it is true that the Covington kids and the adults who arranged this trip are terrible (they wore MAGA hats to a pro-life rally and chanted the Tomahawk Chop, and that grin...I mean it will haunt me for months) and it is also true that as terrible as they are, they did not incite violence or make racist remarks on top of the inherent racism of the Tomahawk Chop chant, which by the way, Kansas City Chiefs fans also did throughout the AFC Championship game on Sunday. It is also true that Nathan Phillips approached the students and not the other way around. It is also true the BHI were hurling insults at the students. It is also true that none of the adults with the Covington group seemed to step up and do anything. It is also true that the Catholic Church is a moral cesspool and that Native Americans are the victims of genocide and that whatever the BHI is, it consists of African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved for hundreds of years by the ancestors of at least a few of the Covington kids.
All of these things are true. What are we going to do about it? I don't know, but tweeting is not enough.