Those MAGA-Hatted Covington Kids

Yes, the Black Hebrew Israelites spat racist taunts at the MAGA-hatted Kentucky high school kids.
And yes, the drumming Native American inserted himself between the two groups.

But the head MAGA boy did block the drummer’s path and stood there with a defiant smirk that exactly duplicated the sneers of his predecessors a couple generations ago who confronted blacks desegregating southern lunch counters.

And the students backing the smirker instantly morphed Transformer-like into a mob that exactly duplicated the throngs celebrating ancient lynchings.

After the nation’s initial shocked rejection of this scene, these history re-enactors are being raised on morning-TV network pedestals as youthful victims of a tragic rush to judgment.

This arc of events follows the same path as the response to cops gunning down unarmed blacks. Shock. Then a “more nuanced” view. Then a PayPal fundraiser, and the killer cop (or neighborhood watch volunteer) becomes a rich celebrity.

The Kentucky high school case is another version of the same reflex. This must be identified for what it is to mount a resistance against it–so that our future does not descend into a re-enactment of our past.

I suspect that Hieronymous Bosch could have rendered the essence of that Lincoln memorial confluence more truly than the various dueling videos.

DAVID UNDERHILL lives in Mobile, Alabama. He can be reached at drunderhill@yahoo.com