On Jan. 18, Covington Catholic High School students sent social media into a frenzy as some of them were filmed confronting Nathan Phillips, an indigenous people’s rights activist and Omaha tribe elder. The incident was covered extensively, not only by news cameras but also with smartphones.
The students from the private school in Northern Kentucky were in Washington, D.C., for the pro-life rally March for Life, while Phillips was attending the Indigenous Peoples’ March. The organizers of the Indigenous Peoples’ March were the party who first shared the footage online, and it did not take long for the video to go viral.
Many of the Covington Catholic High School students were wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats and President Donald Trump was quick to respond through Twitter. In a tweet, the president claimed that the students had become examples of “fake news.â€
“They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good – maybe even to bring people together,†Trump tweeted.
Trump’s tweet brought into question the positives and negatives of social media, an issue that continues to be discussed after the fallout from the Facebook data privacy scandal.
Social media sites such as Facebook were supposedly designed, as Trump said, ‘to bring people together.’
The Covington Catholic High School students were initially blasted on social media for their behavior, but follow-up interviews and additional footage appear to show that the confrontation developed from a convergence of three separate parties, the third being a group of black men who identify as Hebrew Israelites.
Â
What does the ‘MAGA’ hat mean to you?
“Idiocy.”
Isaiah Sackey, 20, junior, music education major
“When I heard ‘Make America Great Again,’ I first thought it was about bringing jobs to the country, but I also think about racism.”
Grantavius Brown, 25, sophomore, merchandising and psychology major
“When I first heard MAGA in the campaigning in 2016 I thought, ‘What?’ We’re like reverting back to the past, which wasn’t great for a lot of American citizens back then, so I just don’t see how wearing it (the hat) could be okay. I hate it.”
Dawn Bursi, 21, freshman, English major
“I think it represents a split ideology. No one ever thinks they’re a villain in their own story. I can’t say it’s rooted in hate, it’s just rooted in a mindset that most people don’t understand.”
Toti Cuervo, 22, senior, computer science and business management major
“I think that it symbolizes something great in the beginning and is a sense of hope for our nation to be good again; like it says, ‘Make America Great Again.’ I think that it once was the thing that holds all of us Trump fans together. It made us feel strongly about him and the things he was going to do great for our country.”
Lexi Harrison, 19, freshman, political science and philosophy major
“It symbolizes that they support Trump. There are different kinds of Trump supporters, but I think a lot of these supporters ignore true factual criticisms of Trump, like weird stuff he’s said about his daughter and how arrogant he is.”
John Roberts, 19, sophomore, computer science major
“Racism. It’s really divided. You’ve got the people who think it really does symbolize America’s greatness, then you have the people who see it as blatantly racist.”
Samantha Lenton, 19, sophomore, criminology
“The MAGA hat is like the new version of the swastika that people just want to wear in public to raise a bunch of controversy. I think it’s mostly people that are missing something in their life and need a group to join, so they just join the Nazis.”
Will Crislip, 18, freshman, business major
