NEO: The Covington chronicles: on hating the face of a teenage boy.

One of the most chilling aspects of the hatred fanned by the duplicitous reporting on the videotaped incident regarding the Covington students and the 60-something Native American has been the venomous rage directed against the face of one of the students, as well as the conclusions drawn about the expression on the face and what it might signify about the person. . . .

“Bullying” doesn’t even begin to describe what has been done to Sandmann by supposedly responsible and thoughtful adults. Even if the original story of what occurred had been true—and it was most definitely not—the depth of the rage would be way out of line. . . .

What is it they “recognized”? A face that is now permissible to hate, apparently; they’re not shy about writing about their hate and signing their names to it. That face is white, male, and supposedly “privileged” (whether they know a single thing about that person’s actual life circumstances or not). I have come to think of it in a kind of shorthand as hatred towards the “frat boy” in their minds. And it’s not new, although I’ve never before seen a national eruption of this hatred expressed towards someone who is not yet an adult

This hatred is bigoted and prejudiced, pure and simple. The hatred’s origins lie not just in the work the media had undertaken to shape its audience towards feeling this hatred—although that is most definitely part of it—but it also is an opportunity for the viewer to draw in all sorts of historical references to other white men and/or boys they have grown to hate, and to make often-absurd parallels.

Our political/journalistic class shows us what kind of people it is made up of every single day.

Meanwhile, I hope the voters of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio remember who hates their kids on sight, and vote accordingly.

UPDATE: From a friend on Facebook: “Is no one else finding it sadly ironic that the country is in an uproar over a kid who practiced literal nonviolent inaction during a highly questionable confrontation – on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Also from Facebook: “Most people, to include conservatives, are now conditioned to unquestioningly assume racism on the part of conservative leaning people. The only behavior which would have placated the mob would have been for the boys to have bowed their heads, averted their gaze, and removed their hats while groveling.” Actually, it’s not clear that even that would have been sufficient.