Imagine if Catholic schools made racism and not abortion the centerpiece of their moral education.— Natalia Imperatori (@nimperatori) January 19, 2019
#covingtoncatholic is now trending in United Kingdomhttps://t.co/PeHqg1NqUj pic.twitter.com/Z8iqT61lsF— Trendsmap UK (@TrendsUK) January 20, 2019
Michelle Boorstein, "'Opposed to the dignity of the human person': Kentucky Catholic diocese condemns teens who taunted vet at March for Life":
A viral video of a group of Kentucky teens in "Make America Great Again" hats taunting a Native American veteran on Friday has heaped fuel on a long-running, intense argument among abortion opponents as to whether the close affiliation of many antiabortion leaders with President Trump since he took office has led to moral decay that harms the movement.
These are "pro-life" Catholic high school students mocking and harassing a Native American chanter. As with Ben Shapiro, a concern for "life" is the main force driving their politics. https://t.co/mfHdTrHUWv— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 19, 2019
Laura Keener, of the diocese, released the following statement:
We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan. 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C. We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.
The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.We know this incident also has tainted the entire witness of the March for Life and express our most sincere apologies to all those who attended the March and all those who support the pro-life movement.
I’d like to believe this but ... the March for Life featured Ben Shapiro and Mike Spence and praise to the heavens for Donald Trump.
These boys were a feature not a bug. https://t.co/dLVOKJExWM— David Gibson (@GibsonWrites) January 19, 2019
Just unreal. What the pro life march has morphed into. Anti abortion meets white supremacy. https://t.co/8KIBZpXxFe— fionawoods46 (@fionawoods46) January 19, 2019
Good...but when major pro life groups refuse to challenge Trump’s nativism & remained silent even when immigrant kids were thrown in cages, they contribute to the culture that fuels this kind of vile behavior. So this not only feels very late to the game but ignores that context https://t.co/cn3Ke8x9gv— John Gehring (@gehringdc) January 19, 2019
when you have a bunch of white kids screaming 'build the wall' at indigenous folks it's very apparent that 'the wall' has nothing to do with border security, it's simply a monument to white supremacy— Calvin (@calvinstowell) January 19, 2019
When MAGAs are yelling “build the wall” at a Native American Elder, it should be obvious this is about racism, not border security.— Alt. U.S. Press Sec. (@AltUSPressSec) January 19, 2019
While white teenagers in MAGA hats relentlessly mocked him, Nathan Phillips thought about his wife, Soshana — who died of cancer four years ago.
“I felt like the spirit was talking through me,” he told @washingtonpost. https://t.co/1uDuSN1J7N— Katie Mettler (@kemettler) January 19, 2019
Ruth Graham, "The MAGA Teenager Who Harassed a Native American Veteran Is Still Unnamed, but We’ve Seen His Face Before":
But I think the real reason the clip has spread is simpler: It's the kid's face. The face of self-satisfaction and certitude, of edginess expressed as cruelty. The face remains almost completely still as his peers hoot in awed delight at his bravado. The face is both punchable and untouchable. Many observers recognized it right away. ...
The face is in this photo of a clutch of white young men crowding around a single black man at a lunch counter sit-in in Virginia in the 1960s, and in many other images of jeering white men from that era. The face is the rows of Wisconsin high school boys flashing Nazi salutes in a prom picture last year. The face is Brett Kavanaugh—then a student at an all-boys Catholic prep school—"drunkenly laughing" as he allegedly held down Christine Blasey Ford. Anyone who knew the popular white boys in high school recognized it: the confident gaze, the eyes twinkling with menace, the smirk. The face of a boy who is not as smart as he thinks he is, but is exactly as powerful. The face that sneers, "What? I'm just standing here," if you flinch or cry or lash out. The face knows that no matter how you react, it wins.
Covington Catholic is a perfect fit for a NYT Feature on how Trump's message has resonated in this hardscrabble rural Kentucky high school riven with economic anxiety, except for its being located in a well-to-do suburb of Cincinnati and charging ten grand a year in tuition.— Kieran Healy (@kjhealy) January 19, 2019
Well said. I wrote about the culture behind that kind of sneer a few months ago by reflecting on the all boys Catholic prep school I attended. https://t.co/Cj17n9jIwD— John Gehring (@gehringdc) January 20, 2019
https://t.co/44XV4qhK8m— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) January 19, 2019
So we've got these students from Covington Catholic acting out filthy racism, and then, from the same diocese last year, at another Catholic high school, a gay young man barred from giving his valedictory address. /1— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) January 19, 2019
Then I remember the incident the year before that in which a group of boys from Jesuit Prep in Dallas were caught on video making gross racist remarks.
I know not all students at Catholic schools are Catholic, but a lot are: who's catechizing these folks? /2— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) January 19, 2019
An entire generation of young white boys and men are being radicalized by Trump in front of our very eyes.
Impeachment or no impeachment, defeat in 2020 or no defeat in 2020, I suspect it’s too late to put this particular #MAGA genie back in the bigoted bottle.— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 19, 2019
(Thanks to Chris Morley for pointing me to the trends map showing this story trending in the UK yesterday.)