Officially halfway done with Trump's first term and on the second anniversary of his inauguration the country was again reminded of what he stands for and how divided, racist, and hateful our country is.
Nathan Phillips, Nick Sandmann
Drums and MAGA hats
I once again got into a text argument with Jared. This time it was about the situation at the National Mall those high school students from Kentucky and the innocent that occurred.
His arguing points felt very similar to Laura Ingraham in this "interview" I hesitate to even give this type of "news" a view but I think this accurately illustrates the culture I am living in currently in 2019.
at about 6 1/2 minutes into the segment:
Is the maga hat racist?
it’s a piece of clothing that represents Donald Trump and everything that comes along with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is an unrepentant racist. The MAGA hat to many is representative of a Klan hood or of various other symbols of racism.
What’s going on here? Is this real? Did he just say that on cable television? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in seven years of doing cable news that Make America Great Again, by the way a slogan used by Bill Clinton at times too, is racist? Are you serious? So Donald Trump, who gives you back more of your money, fought for school choice, has black unemployment at the lowest in modern American history… if he’s a racist, he’s the worst racist in American history.
This was the point in the "conversation" where the frequencies or channels of communication begin to split and we can see clearly where the two sides stand. The Fox News team is making the argument that the MAGA hat CAN'T possibly be racist because it has the harmless words "Make America Great Again" on the hat. Who could be against the idea of making America great again? We are all American citizens why wouldn't you want America great? And how can someone wanting America to be great possibly be racist? Wouldn't making America great be defeated racism? So doesn't the MAGA hat actually stand for the exact opposite of what you are claiming it stands for?!
But that isn't at all what Bishop Talbert Swan is saying. It isn't the literal words, it isn't the literal color red...is the the context, the subtext, and the representation that piece of clothing holds within it.
It makes me think of the Christian symbol of the cross. The cross is a symbol of love and peace right? But what if that cross is now suddenly burning in the front yard of an American citizen? How can the symbol of Jesus, who fought for the freedom, rights, and justice for the oppressed, possibly be perceived as racist? It's just burning on your front yard, no harm at all.
This is the racism of my day. This is the bigotry, the hatred, and the oppression of today. It hides in the smirk under a MAGA hat, it hides in a cable "news" interview asking about fairness.
You cannot deny what your own eyes see when you see these young men mocking, jeering, ridiculing, the native american, you can't deny what you see when you see them accusing and yelling at women and saying things like it's not rape if you enjoy it. So let's not pretend that they are not guilty of any wrong doing.
The fact is that that person who made the comment about rape is not a Covington Catholic student, he's not part of that group. They weren't doing that. (According to Covington Catholic Schools) Nick Sandmann has been threatened and he was standing there. They were not doing that. Did this boys, standing there, did they trigger this behavior on the part of this activist and the black Hebrew Israelites with these hats?
I have no idea what he's talking about we're all watching the same video. It's like we live in a post-fact bizarro world universe. You have a kid standing there in a MAGA hat with a political expression on it motionless with a smile on his face while an adult confronts the kid I don't know what tape the Bishop is watching what did these kids do wrong?
Well if you want to pretend that the few moments where Mr. Sandmann was standing in front of Mr. Phillips is the say all and the be all to the video then go right ahead but there is a lot to the video than just that one point and you cannot sit here and tell me that these young men were not ridiculing, that they were not jeering that they were not mocking, that's obvious, that's what our eyes see.
You agree, I would imagine, that nonviolent, standing there, even wearing a piece of clothing that people find objectionable is not grounds for then threatening to kill them, burn them, to destroy their lives.
I emphatically condemn that type of behavior, but I also condemn the type of behavior that I saw from those young men on that particular day.
What were they doing? They were standing there Bishop? What is Nick Sandmann doing?
Nick Sandmann was not there by himself there was an entire group of young men who were mocking, they were jeering, they were ridiculing...
They were reacting to being called incest babies I imagine.
Well it wasn't Mr. Phillips who called them that and you can't blame their behavior on their interaction with the Hebrew Israelites were.
So people should be called incest babies, and crackers and swear words, and not respond? First of all Nick Sandmann didn't say any of those things, and those other kids weren't part of the school.
We don't have video evidence of this one single student jeering, mocking, or ridiculing. The school where these students came from claim the rape comment wasn't made by one in their group. So that is the end of the conversation. We will choose to ignore the mocking, we will choose to ignore the other comments, because all of those can be refuted...can you prove a student said that? Can you prove that they are "mocking" in the video? Can you prove the phrase "Make America Great Again" is racist? So nothing in this incident was wrong. These are just innocent little baby children who love and support their federal government and who on earth could be against that?
That's the narrative here...but we know that isn't the truth.
Can't see the forest for the trees
Can't see the truth for the facts
And that's exactly where today's racism loves to sit. Can you PROVE the white cop was racist before he murdered the black man?
Do we know what happened BEFORE the cameras started rolling? What did the black man say or do before the cop pulled the gun? What did the woman say before she was hit? But when it comes to the MAGA hat kids we love to say, there is no video evidence so nothing must have happened. No wrongs whatsoever.
How can Donald Trump be racist? He signed the First Step Act Bill for criminal justice reform. Black unemployment is at an all-time low. So he couldn't possibly be racist. Therefore the MAGA hat can't possibly be the new Klan hood.
The facts, the stuff out in to open, the public eye, in the light of day.
But there is another piece to the puzzle. There is the truth that glares in our faces. It's so obvious, it's so present. But when playing the game of the American judicial system the oasis turns to mirage. And that's the exact way our country would like to keep the system.
What evidence do you have you were raped?
What evidence do you have that there is prejudice?
Obviously I am not advocating for the throwing out of facts. In my day the day of tossing around the words "fake news" facts are very important. And no one, especially myself is trying to discount the facts. Yes the video shows what it shows and the facts are that the MAGA kid stood there smirking, and the school claimed the rape comment wasn't from their student body. But there must be a second fastener in the sign post of reality. There must be a way to capture context with fact to create the pure picture of truth.
This stuff sincerely bothers me. It gives me a heavy heart. This is the truth, Donald Trump is a racist and those fucking MAGA hats are todays white hoods. But the fact is, it's just a piece of clothing.