Let’s not pretend you care about racism. Sadly, many of my
fellow Americans do not even seem that concerned with truth. We care more about
what supports our version of the truth, and we can all see (if we try) that is
having devastating consequences.
When I first watched the video from the National Mall this
past weekend featuring the now famous encounter, I was saddened and angry like most
people. So, I watched it again, and it seemed so heartless. Furthermore, I personally
identified with everyone present – someone of white heritage, a conservative, a
Catholic, a proponent of the right to life… and a Native American. It didn’t make sense. Surely, a trained progressive would tell me that is
because I am privileged not to see racism. However, a correction should be made - I choose first to see truth.
The primary account of the story was that the high school
boys surrounded Nathan Phillips – a Native American Man – and ridiculed him as
he peacefully played his drum. According to Phillips, he was responding to the
boys who were chanting, “Build That Wall” and were acting angrily toward him
and others. Of all the cameras recording this situation that day, not one seems
to have recorded the purported chant. Of all video footage available, the boys do
not appear to be angry. They were in effect having an impromptu pep rally, as
claimed by a participant to counter or drown out the real hate – from a small
group of extremely vocal “Black Hebrew Israelites.”
If this is the same group of men who gather to preach their intolerance
at Metro stops in Washington, D.C., then I am somewhat familiar with their
rants, and locals usually just walk by in attempts to ignore them. On the National Mall
that day, these “preachers” are recorded calling these high school students
from Kentucky “dusty ass crackers,” “incest babies,” “school shooters,” and
more. In addition, they made hateful references to women, Catholics,
homosexuals, and even Native Americans as “Uncle Tomahawks.” Yet, no one in this
national knee-jerk outcry have a tenth of the interest in denouncing this pure,
blatant hate speech in their quest to confront racism. Why is that? After riding public transportation in
Washington, D.C. for years, this kind of black-on-nonblack vitriol is not
unheard of, and nobody raises an eyebrow. I have been threatened with gun
violence, called an Anglo-Saxon, told my mother must be a whore to have a son
like me - all within the Metro system and once by a Metro employee. No one stopped
a bus or stepped in to protect me on the train, and certainly no one started a
viral campaign to counter or promote violence against my verbal attackers. People
just look the other way.
Why? Because that’s not the way racism is supposed to work.
White people are racist. Republicans are racist. “Make America Great Again” caps
are inherently racist. Confronting someone who is from a traditionally
oppressed group is racist. So, you have a Native American with cameras rolling
behind him walk up and get in the face of a white boy with a MAGA hat – who
doesn’t budge - and you have liberal internet gold! Never mind, these boys were
not recorded saying anything hateful. Never mind, these boys seemed to be
chanting along with Mr. Phillips happily. Never mind that the boys were audibly
uncomfortable with one of their own African-American classmates being called the
N-word or with homosexuals being openly disparaged. Never mind that one of the
other Native American instigators told the boys to “go back to Europe, where
you came from; this is not your land!” No, that’s not the way racism is
supposed to work.
People like to tell other people how racism
works, and to some extent, I appreciate the enlightenment. However, it’s gone
too far, and people have overplayed their hands. Too many people rely too heavily
on this too soon, that they do the actual cause of seeking racial harmony
(wait, what?) harm in the attempt to appear in the moral majority. If you
rushed to judgment, you don’t care about racism, and you don’t care about the
truth. You care about yourself - whether you are a news outlet trying to get
clicks, a member of Congress trying to score political points, or just a
regular person trying to be woke. You want to be a part of this Indian’s peace prayer
chant? Calm down and see people and situations for who and what they are,
regardless of what that can do for you.
