A lesson in
dialecticaly analyzing breaking news
The Worker Editorial Board Response
Recent
viral videos sprung up showing a group of white high-school students
wearing MAGA hats and clothing . The recordings from Washington DC
revealed what appeared to be students surrounding and harassing a Native
American US military veteran.
During
Friday’s (Jan. 18, 2019) Indigenous Peoples March in Washington DC, a
group of white private high-school students from Kentucky wearing
MAGA-branded clothing and hats appeared to surround and harass
64-year-old Native American Nathan Phillips, a veteran of the Vietnam
War, as he played a drum and chanted in his native language.
Though
subsequent videos shows before the drummiing started, the young teenage
boys were being verbally harrassed themselves. Black Hebrew Israelites,
BHI, were taunting and insulting their (students) faith, their priests
and their culture. What appeared to be smugness towards the Omaha
Indigenous elder was being directed towards the BHI. How would any young
teenage boy respond to this verbal abuse?
The
social media culture is used to manipulate and incite persons while maybe
not tellilng the whole story. Knee jerk reactions further the racism
divide that is enveloping all nations. We can’t just take a live streamed
video or Instagram picture to tell the whole story. We have to go old
school and use dialetical reasoning skills before making snap judgement.
Here
is what we know to be reliable truth.
MAGA-branded
clothing and hats are typically worn by supporters of President Donald
Trump, and the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) slogan is considered to
be the most important catchphrase of the 45th US president’s
administration.
Seeding
Sovereignity, (seedingsovereignty.org), wrote of working through their
own complicated and emotional reactions to the video, and attested to the
generosity Phillips displayed: “The way we see it, uncle blessed them in
spite of their behavior because he knows our ancestral teachings. Many of
us love to say we are rising in beauty, but how many of us put that
sentiment into action?
Many
have observed that Trump’s polarizing rhetoric on immigrants to the US
has contributed to the current climate of racial abuse.
US
House Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM), a Native American and a
professed Catholic, was at the DC rally.Haaland, pointed out that Trump
has made it a habit to use Indian names, including Pocahontas, as insults
toward political opponents.
“It
is sad that we have a president who uses Native American women’s names as
racial slurs, and that’s an example that these kids are clearly
following, considering the fact that they had their ‘Make America Great
Again’ [MAGA] hats on,” Haaland noted. “[Trump has] really brought out
the worst in people,” the lawmaker added.
Rebecca
Bengal, Vogue, reported eloquently, “On the video footage, it is
difficult to hear exactly what is said. The students encircle Phillips,
camera phones held out, a few jeering as he sings. One of them, smiling,
maintains direct eye contact. Phillips kept on drumming. “We’re
indigenous,” he said the next day in an interview with Indian Country
Today. “We’re different than that. When we see our youth going the wrong
way, we will go up and say, “You are doing the wrong thing there, Nephew
or Grandson. This is just the wrong way.”
While
this story is still unfolding, the fact remains that ill-equipped Trump
for the presidency enflames white nationalism. The root issue here is
racism. It also further documents how the imperialistic fascists incite
class divisions amoung all working class groups. At first news reports
incited anger towards the white youth. The new videos incite hatered
towards BHI, This must be addressed. There is no room in scientific
socialism for class division.
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