What’s going on in today’s politics? As young adults, it is our right to make sure we stay up to date with issues facing our country. Whether it’s issues affecting us directly or issues not affecting us directly, having full understanding of these problems can help us find a solution. Politics is known to cause havoc between race groups and ideologies already set in place.
Recently, a video surfaced of a group of white male teens wearing “Make America Great Again” hats surrounding a small group of Native American demonstrators. Among these demonstrators was elder from the Omaha tribe, Nathan Phillips. The young white teens were identified as students from Covington Catholic High School. The students were apparently there to attend the March for Life, which is a march for people who are anti-abortion. One student in particular, Nick Sandmann, was seen smirking while watching elder Nathan Phillips play his drum. The video sparked outrage on social media showcasing that this is another typical story of privileged racist white kids harassing a peaceful Native protest. According to Nick Sandmann, while him and the other students from Covington High were waiting to board buses back to Kentucky, a group of Black Israelites started to harass them calling them names. The Omaha tribe elder, had tried to intervene by playing his drum.
What does this video symbolize? To many, wearing the MAGA hat is symbol of not only supporting Trump, but his anti-minority proposals that will make America, “great again”. Was their politics behind this video? The simple fact that these group of white teenagers, wearing this hat while surrounding this Native American, showed not only the white privileged power in America, but the Christian white privilege that white males seems to uphold since the beginning of time. To many conservatives, this video was about how white christian males are the targeted and the persecuted in modern America. Many individuals believed that this video shows a look into the future and what we should expect. The politics behind this video and the backlash shows the way in which these students are being taught and raised. President Trump even took to twitter to speak on the situation, expressing that “Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be.”
After the backlash from this video, Nick Sandmann has been given the opportunity to tell his story by NBC. The video once again brings up the conversation of what the MAGA hat actually stands for. The smirk on Nick’s face can be interpreted in many ways. The most important interpretation is that his smirk symbolizes the privilege, ignorance and the large group of poorly, missguided white youth that are being taught by their teachers and families.