The Funniest Story of the Year
It’s only January, but the incident between the high school students and native americans has given me all the laughter I needed for the year. When I heard about the “staring contest” confrontation between the Covington Catholic High School Student Nick Sandmann and Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington D.C., I did not think much of it until the aftermath came. That’s when I could not contain myself. I haven’t laughed this hard since I saw Michael Blackson live. To be fair, there has been a longer form video trying to shed a different light on the entire situation. Sure, the whole country will look at this moment and want to barely crack a smile, but I unfortunately found the humor that has been often looked over.
Where is your sense of humor when you can’t find the comic relief in this entire ordeal so far? The story starts out that a group of high school students from Park Hills, Kentucky, attending a March for Life rally, are seen on video taunting a Native American man who was playing his spirit song while he attended an Indigenous People’s March. While playing this song, the kid –who was also wearing a MAGA hat — can be seen staring the man down. However, the story does not stop there, but the jokes comes in for me.
When I use the term “funny”, I mean that in its literal and ironic form. People are reacting to something that has always been there for years. It was revealed that there was antagonism coming from another group — the Black Israelites. Reports said this group was provoking both groups at the time and may have been the cause of the tense scene in the video. Even in a scene where virtually no black people are around, somehow black people still get caught up in this. They still found a way to blame some wrongdoing on black people, even if it’s an action unrelated to what’s really happening. We’re not talking about a general person of color — we’re talking specifically about people who are black, African-American or whatever term they taught you in that fake ass diversity class.
A couple of days later, actress Alyssa Milano declared that the MAGA hat was like the white hood of the Klu Klux Klan and people went crazy. They could not believe that young people could be judged for what they wore in public. It was astonishing that the whole country saw one article of clothing on someone of a certain color and rushed to extreme judgments. This is not the America I grew up in. You guys are out here writing satire right now.
As more things came out, it didn’t seem the humor would stick, but the New York Post made sure that wouldn’t happen. I got a good kick out of them writing a story that reported on the criminal record of the Native American man. Now it wasn’t enough that the kid in the video has appeared on morning talk shows and has reportedly been invited to the White House by the President; now there is written material shining light on various mistakes this U.S. veteran has made at a young age. They also questioned his service to the country, bringing up his AWOL infractions. A criminal record is nothing to laugh at but I’m guessing you all kind of get the joke.
All these things have been happening to black people for years. There’s a confrontation between two groups of non-black people, but let’s go focus our attention on these Black Israelites because they were yelling, and the noise caused tension between everyone else. Some teenager got judged and ridiculed for the clothing he chose to wear, but let’s ignore the fact people cross the streets because they see a black person in a hoodie or there are unnecessary “dress codes” at bars against items such as caps, baggy jeans or any other items associated with black culture. Some peaceful person has been stared down, and he committed no ill will, but still had his minimal criminal record put on blast. In fact, let’s ignore the fact the media has done this before. When a black man is a victim, there is always the need to make into a criminal or some sort of problematic individual. They tried to say Trayvon Martin was a trouble maker, Botam Jean smoked weed and Tamir Rice should not have been playing with a toy gun. In other words, the media is trying to justify this man getting someone in his face for no reason.
I am seeing how other races are handling certain issues black people have been through and will not stop cackling at the irony of it all. These are things that have been talked about by us for years, and it seemed nobody was listening, but now they don’t have a choice but to pay attention. It would appear any time we brought these issues up, they were brushed to the side as “divisive”, “race-baiting”, etc. Now that same judgment has found its aim towards white kids, so America feels forced apologies on this incident is going to end racism. That idea is funnier than all 3 Friday movies, combined, and I will not lie to kick it. What happened in Washington D.C. might not be humorous to most, but the expectation I should feel sorry for anyone in that situation is a joke on its own.
