Covington school kids intimidated Native Americans. Who taught them that? | Opinion

• Albert Bender, a Cherokee activist, historian, author and grant writer, lives in South Nashville.

The incident of January 18, of an encounter between a Native American elder and a mob of white high school students, remains permanently riveted in the minds of the nation and the world.

It’s all on video.  

Alarmingly shown is a  young white man (not a boy), a junior in high school, with a disgusting smirk in the face of an Indigenous elder, Nathan Phillips, who is drumming and singing at the first Indigenous Peoples March. 

Despite the despicable efforts of Trump supporters  to exculpate these young villains from their loathsome conduct, the videos speak for themselves.

Where were the adults?

Those who would disbelieve their own eyes are so blinded  by racism that they make a defense of the indefensible . Racism can make some arrive at incredible conclusions.

I have seen the footage on national  news of these young men standing in front of the Indigenous elder doing racist, mock Indian dances. Footage also shows teens shouting and chanting at Phillips. This is undisputed.

One of the teens takes off his clothing to just shorts (remember, it is bitterly cold) and began reportedly imitating the Haka, an Indigenous Maori  war dance, obviously to intimidate (the Maori are the Native people of New Zealand and I’m sure they would be offended by this insult to  their culture. What is taught at Covington Catholic? Racial Mockery 101?).

This behavior was reportedly  engaged in with the blessing and encouragement of the chaperones. 

Videos also show Phillips and a tiny group of Indigenous surrounded by a sea of white youth. Again, this is all on video and yet we have some racists lamely trying to defend these errant white students by emphasizing minor details of the encounter such as who approached who first.   

Most credibly, an Indigenous eyewitness states: “ We were surrounded by the boys, and we were alarmingly outnumbered. As we attempted to continue our path and move through the crowd, the boys closed in around us, until finally one particular boy stood in front of Nathan and refused to let us pass ... There were so many boys that I couldn’t see around them.”  

The children were ignorant about Native Americans

There are also eyewitnesses  that confirm  the students were shouting “Build the Wall” and “Go back to the Reservation”  and “Gone In 2020.” The teens were also observed performing the insulting “tomahawk chop” of the Atlanta Braves sports team. This is confirmed by those who were in fear of bodily harm or worse.

When surrounded by these youth some Native people tried to engage them in dialogue.  In response to “You are on stolen land,” a teen said “Land gets stolen. That how it works. It’s the way of the world.”

More reports are surfacing of other racial offenses at Covington Catholic. There is a photograph of Covington Catholic students in black face and black body paint yelling at an African American player of an opposing team during a basketball game in 2012..

There is also a social media account from a referee, Marshall  Jolly, who   states “As a (retired) soccer referee, I dreaded officiating matches where Covington Catholic was involved. The fans were always among the rudest, most disrespectful, and mean-spirited that I’ve encountered--and I’ve refereed for a long time at almost  every  level of the game!" He continued: “ Racial epithets and slurs were commonplace in the halls."

If anything, perhaps this episode will help to expose and root out that bevy of racism that is Covington Catholic.

This school  is  emblematic of the social malignancy that is a festering sore on the body politic of America. 

Albert Bender, a Cherokee activist, historian, author and grant writer, lives in Antioch, Tennessee. Email him at albertbender07@yahoo.com.