When conservative writers defamed Nathan Phillips in order to shore up their own virtuous image I thought it best to ignore them. Never mind the fact that Nathan Phillips and his people pose no threat to them, or that they don’t have sufficient resources to retaliate. But the Covington High School saga is morphing into a tribal face-saving effort involving parents, corporate media, and lawsuits. This is Covington High School in an Unforgiving World.
In Covington’s Defense
At least one person tried to make peace with Phillips at the scene. I’m sure this makes the viral nature of the story all the more disheartening from a conservative point of view.
I defended the Covington boys because they are young men just starting out in life. And they didn’t fully understand the situation.
One would have thought the story would go away once the additional facts came out, but conservative parents and pundits won’t let it die. This behavior may be based in a reality that progressives don’t fully understand.
An Unforgiving Business Environment
A recent opinion in the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-likely-to-panic-about-old-yearbook-pics-business-leaders-11549376319 argued that a person’s youth is no excuse for bad behavior. Business leaders can’t afford to hire people with incriminating yearbook entries or other youthful indiscretions, the authors insist. Therefore background checks must include 25 years or more of an applicant’s history.
It sounds like the creation of a new American caste system. America has a long history of similar processes affecting poor people of color, but now it appears they extend to the privileged among us. Could that be why the conservatives won’t let this story die?
Should Yearbooks be Fair Game?
Democrats used Brett Kavanaugh’s yearbook against him, but many of us saw it as a last line of defense. Republicans were maneuvering for control of the Supreme Court. This maneuvering began in earnest shortly after the death of Antonin Scalia and was largely responsible for the election of Donald Trump. On the other hand, you could say the use of his yearbook set a precedent.
In other words, Kavanaugh’s past became fair game because of Republican duplicity. However, no one can say that about the young boys at Covington. What appeared to be taking place in that video was a spontaneous insult against a representative of the Indian Nation. It was a sensitive time for such a news story. Indigenous people had come to represent progressive hopes during the 2016 election. But the election of Donald Trump put these hopes on hold.
Later we learned that the behavior of Covington students was not as bad as it looked. But all things considered, the initial outrage shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
No One Will Like Where This is Going
If the Wall Street Journal opinion piece is correct, this will come down to a future anonymous human resources maven pushing a few buttons and calmly eliminating job applicants with very little cause and without batting an eye. Alternatively, those involved in the dissemination of the video, and maybe those who published condemnations based on the video, will pay dearly. Everyone involved is a product of this unforgiving world. However, once this becomes the business of a corporate human resources department or a crack legal team, Jesus’s admonition will not apply.
“…He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…” (John 8:7)
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