Black Children Don't Have Nick Sandmann's Rights

https://www.thenation.com/article/black-children-nick-sandmann-savannah-guthrie/?utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=facebook

And they definitely don’t get the chance to redeem themselves on national TV with the help of Savannah Guthrie.

By Elie Mystal

On Wednesday morning, I watched Savannah Guthrie help Nick Sandmann gaslight America into disbelieving its own eyes. I watched the interviewer make no attempts to cut through a mere teenager’s emergency public-relations script. I watched the Today show helpfully allow Sandmann to present himself without his racist uniform on his head.

And, along with nearly every nonwhite American I happen to know, I retched at the whole process. Some white people explaining away the racism of other white people to make white people feel better is a constant feature of the Trump era.

There’s something Promethean about the experience: minorities are lashed to the rock that is America, MAGA eagles peck at our livers all day, then the next day the media tell us that we have to understand the “true” motivations of the MAGA eagles—and then releases them again to peck at our livers all day.

Even in that context, the Sandmann interview was a special form of crazy-making. I’ve seen the video of Sandmann and his Covington Catholic High School posse. I’ve seen the extended video that includes black people saying mean things to the mob of teens sporting racist haberdashery. I’ve seen the extended-extended clip of the Covington “kids” taunting women. And despite all of the clips and angles, nobody has been able to explain away Nick Sandmann’s blocking access to the Lincoln Memorial to Nathan Phillips, while his buddies laughed and mocked and tomahawk-chopped at a Native American.

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