Parsing the smirk of a teenager. Yes, this confrontation between Black Hebrew Israelites (a fringe militant group), American Indian elders and privileged white teenage boys wearing MAGA hats in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial on the eve of Martin Luther King Day shows us how divided we are as a nation.
The situation also shows how the rise of “whataboutism” has corrupted our sense of right and wrong. If you do something wrong, what about the other guy? If you look closely enough, isn’t there enough blame to go around? Aren’t there good — and bad — people on all sides?
Originating with 5-year-olds, “whataboutism” became wildly popular with adults in the 1990s, specifically when then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich — an infamous philanderer — waged war for Bill Clinton’s impeachment for that president’s sexual transgressions.
At the same time, Fox News was born, turning what used to be an intense Republican focus on “individual responsibility” into a fun game of partisan finger pointing — that station’s hallmark still today — and a disease that has spread nationwide.
We could also blame liberal arts education for asking us to see more than one side of a situation. But then we forget that the whole point of a critical thinking curriculum is to evaluate information so as to reach a measured conclusion of right and wrong.
As someone who taught high school for 21 years, I understand immediately the smirk on the kid’s face and the jeers, chants and mocking gestures of his testosterone-fueled friends. But even my experience with this age group aside, if he were my son, I would know he had no business staring down a Native elder. He was wrong. His friends were wrong.
Perhaps the black Hebrew Israelites were mean to them. But isn’t turning the other cheek the Christian thing to do? Whatever happened to just walking away? Were they moored to that spot?
And what did these Native elders do besides play a drum and stare him down? American Indians have not just been taunted. They were murdered by the hundreds of thousands by white teens this age just over 100 years ago.
I understand that the “adviser” for these Catholic schoolboys is a fervent Trump supporter (hence the MAGA hats) attending a pro-life rally — because our current president (who has the morals of a mobster) will appoint pro-life Supreme Court judges.
In this stupidly partisan age, there are many single-issue voters with impossible arrogance, defending any behavior at all — as long as it furthers their search for the Great White Whale of making abortion illegal. Or more guns available to anyone at all. Or the End of Days.
We have lost our way as a nation when no one can see the big picture and still discern right from wrong. “The fish rots from the head” is the Mafia way of saying “The people look to the leader.”
The photo of the teen in the MAGA hat smirking belligerently and pointlessly in our nation’s capital mirrors almost perfectly the kind of leadership emanating from our White House and the corrosion of clear thinking that characterizes this age.
Judy Zone
Judy Zone, Salt Lake City, is retired founder and executive director of the Utah-based youth service nonprofit Youthlinc. She taught at Judge Memorial and Murray high schools and the University of Utah secondary teacher education program for a combined 21 years.