A student from Covington Catholic High School appeared on Fox & Friends Wednesday to defend some students’ use of blackface at sporting events. Featured Video Hide Two white boys in matching white button-down shirts and blue-and-white striped ties were interviewed by host Steve Doocy, who asked senior Sam Schroder, “Something like five years ago, there was a pep rally where one of the members of the school body appeared to have blackface on. People even ask you to explain that. How do you explain that?” Advertisement Hide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtfVCrZ_lFk&t=1239s Schroder told host Steve Doocy that the blackface was just “school spirit.” “We have many themes. Like nerd, business, whiteout, blueout, blackout—as you’ve seen in the video. Ever since I’ve gone to CovCath, we haven’t been able to wear black paint because of the video, but I know the kids meant nothing by it, it’s just showing school spirit.” The video in question actually shows four students in blackface, screaming around a Black basketball player of an opposing team. The video has been deleted from Covington Catholic’s YouTube channel, but screenshots are still widely available on Twitter. Advertisement Hide https://twitter.com/RealAndyHaines/status/1088107162033893377 https://twitter.com/Plantflowes/status/1088098413416202245 America’s history of using blackface goes back to the 1830s, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. White performers would blacken their faces and perform in so-called minstrel shows, the purpose of which was to mock Black people for the entertainment of whites. “These performances characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice,” according to the museum’s website. “Blackface performances grew particularly popular between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century in Northern and Midwestern cities, where regular interaction with African Americans was limited. White racial animus grew following Emancipation when antebellum stereotypes collided with actual African Americans and their demands for full citizenship including the right to vote,” the museum explains. Advertisement Hide In recent popular culture, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was fired from her position at NBC last year, in part due to controversy over blackface. Kelly defended the use of blackface in Halloween costumes. “Back when I was a kid, that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as a character,” she said on her morning show, which was canceled shortly thereafter. H/T the Daily Beast<doc-sep>Screenshot : Today Show, NBC No matter how many times we go through it, it’s always a wonder to witness a spin job in real time. And make no mistake—this latest series of media appearances by the Covington Catholic High School students, who went viral last weekend after their confrontation with a Native American elder and veteran, is exactly that. Advertisement It’s easy to explain why the viral interaction has been so compelling for people throughout the political spectrum. It’s like someone compiled all the Infinity Rings of racist, stupid shit and gathered them together in one ongoing fiasco. There’s a gaggle of white Catholic school students, gleefully mocking a Native American elder. There’s Hebrew Israelites in Washington, D.C., being Hebrew Israelites in Washington, D.C. There’s a staunch defense of the innocent white racists from the commander in chief and what seems to be a pending White House invitation (once the government shutdown ends—don’t want to serve these young lads Wendy’s by candlelight). There’s a bevy of handwringing, chastened journalists who have—willfully or otherwise—lost the plot in order to maintain a semblance of “objectivity” (a word, we’ll remind you, is as loaded when it comes to matters of race as “PC culture” or “neutral”). Oh, and there’s a PR firm to mop this mess up. For now, let’s zero in on that final aspect of this slow-moving debacle: the clean-up job. We’ll start with the centerpiece of all mea culpas that are not, in fact, actual mea culpas: the morning talk show. In this case, the Today Show, which featured an interview between co-anchor Savannah Guthrie and Nick Sandmann—the Covington Catholic student seen smirking in the face of tribal elder Nathan Phillips. As Guthrie explains, Phillips had been interviewed several times by various news outlets. After his parents hired a PR firm, it was now Sandmann’s turn to tell the firm’s carefully constructed his version of events. Advertisement Bereft of any visible emotion, Sandmann told Guthrie that he had “every right” to stand in front of Phillips, and that he didn’t walk away from the Native American man—who had walked over and bega n chanting in an attempt to calm down tensions between the massive group of students and a handful of Hebrew Israelites—because he didn’t want to be “disrespectful.” And because he was acting out of respect, Sandmann felt that neither he, nor the dozens of his classmates gleefully mocking Phillips and doing tomahawk chops at him, owed Phillips an apology. Advertisement “My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I’d like to talk to him. I mean, in hindsight, I wish we could have walked away and avoided the whole thing, but I can’t say that I’m sorry for listening to him and standing there,” he said. Notably, Sandmann also attempts to place the blame for his peers’ racist taunting of a Native American man on the Hebrew Israelites who were at the Lincoln Memorial—a group of four or five black men who were throwing insults at passersby because...Well, have you ever walked by a Hebrew Israelite? It’s kind of their thing. Advertisement And if you’ve walked by Hebrew Israelites, you also know that the best way to deal with their bullshit is to literally walk past it. But that option apparently was not available to the dozens and dozens of Covington students at the Lincoln Memorial that day, who chose to escalate the situation by chanting and taunting back. Or, as Sandmann referred to it, “being positive.” Sandmann also confirmed that he felt “threatened” by the handful of men, despite the fact that he and his classmates vastly outnumbered them. When Guthrie pressed him on this, Sandmann replied, “There were a group of adults and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.” Advertisement Ah, a veiled insinuation that a black man, or a small group of them, somehow posed a real threat of violence, even in the absence of any evidence to support the claim. It was only a matter of time before we arrived here. Guthrie also asked Sandmann if he and his classmates shouted any insults or racial slurs back to the Israelites before Phillips attempted to intervene. Advertisement “We’re a Catholic school and it’s not tolerated,” Sandmann said, referring to racist behavior. “They don’t tolerate racism and none of my classmates are racist people.” Fascinating. Because that’s certainly not what one would believe from images and video of Covington students wearing head-to-toe blackface during basketball games (the videos have been deleted, but the screenshots remain). Advertisement In one particularly troubling still from a 2012 basketball game, a crowd of white kids can be seen aggressively yelling at a black player from an opposing team about to inbound the ball. On either side of him, a white student in blackface can be seen yelling. According to Snopes, some Covington community members defended the practice as part of “black out” games, where supporters wear all black. Advertisement Neither Guthrie nor Sandmann addressed the culture at Covington Catholic—though additional reporting about the school has revealed that the school has had issues with race for years. It was a pair of Covington boys—also at the Lincoln Memorial that day—that summed it up best in an interview with Steve Doocy on Fox News. When asked to explain the “black out” image, one of the students defended his school by saying “the kids meant nothing by it, it’s just showing school spirit.” Advertisement Of course, Covington’s interpretation of “school spirit” was very much on display in D.C. last weekend too. Advertisement Here’s what’s certain: The half-baked, over-glazed answers these kids have given to the media will certainly be sufficient to all the people who were going to hand the Covington Catholic students the benefit of the doubt anyway—that these kids are gauche, but understandable. Idiots, perhaps, as teen boys are wont to be, but certainly not dangerous. For those who believed what they saw the first time, and the second time, and the 12th time, this may be what’s most troubling about watching another predictable spin cycle: In papering over a racist incident of Covington’s own making, the elite school—its kids, its parents, and its administrators—only had to do the bare minimum to wipe their hands clean. Which is what they did, and all that we can expect them to do. Advertisement It is all that’s ever required of them.<doc-sep>
Two students from Covington High School addressed the photos and videos circulating on social media of students wearing blackface during basketball pep rallies, claiming the kids in the video "meant nothing by it" because they were "just showing school spirit." During an episode of Fox & Friends on Wednesday, host Steve Doocy asked Covington students Sam Schroder and Grant Hillmann about the photo that was taken five years ago circulating on social media. In the photo, there are students in blackface who appear to be yelling at a black basketball player during a game. Doocy asked the students to explain the photos and videos circulating through social media. Schroder explained that the students participate in different themes during pep rallies like "nerd, business, white-out, blue-out, and black-out" days to show their school spirit. "I know ever since we've gone to Cov Catholic we haven't been able to wear black paint because of the video, but I know the kids meant nothing by it," said Schroder. "It's just showing school spirit." Doocy then asked Hillmann if he's worried that the school's reputation would prohibit him from continuing onto college following the controversy over the video of a teen from the Catholic school wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat confronting a Native American beating a drum at an Indigenous Peoples Rally. The teen said he is not worried anymore since there is more information out about the video, but he said it was worrisome when the initial video came out without any context. "Ever since the truth has been circulating I think [all] have been accounted for," said Hillmann. "So right now I'm not as worried as I was." The viral video has sparked controversy after a Twitter account posted a partial clip of the incident. In the clip, student Nicholas Sandmann wearing a MAGA hat smiling smugly while a Native American elder played on the drum. Many suggested that Sandmann and the teens surrounding the elder were mocking him. Following the clip, other videos emerged showing different sides of the story. Sandmann said in a statement on Sunday that the video was spreading "misinformation" about the incident at the march. He also claimed that African-American protestors, who identified as Black Hebrew Israelites, were saying "hateful things" to him and his classmates. The Catholic school canceled classes on Tuesday because the school had been receiving threats. "I cannot speak for everyone, only for myself," Sandmann wrote in his statement. "But I can tell you my experience with Covington Catholic is that students are respectful of all races and cultures." The Twitter account that only showed a portion of the scene at the rally was suspended by Twitter. President Donald Trump has shown support for the teens and the other students at the Kentucky Catholic school. "Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday.