(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
If you thought the story of the moment, that of mega-douche / Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann, would pass without your friends at Above the Law taking notice in our virtual pages (what with it having almost no bearing on the legal industry), well, you were wrong.
See, the image of Sandmann’s confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips — you know, the one that’s gone viral — looks strikingly familiar. It’s the look on Sandmann’s face that has everyone talking. In a single image, Sandmann is able to convey all the white male privilege in the world. It’s a look says, “What are you going to do about it?” It’s a look that says, “I can do anything I want.” It’s a look that says, “My parents will never make me apologize, they’ll just hire a PR firm.”
While the full version of the interaction between Sandmann and Phillips certainly presents a more complicated picture, it simply doesn’t change many people’s initial summation of this kid’s smugness. He stood there smirking in his MAGA hat while his peers shouted and did an offensive tomahawk chop, and now he gets to go on the Today show and try and spin himself as the victim.
Hmmm, where have we seen that smug, self-satisfied knowledge that the world will roll out the red carpet for you and if anything doesn’t go exactly to plan, well, then it’s because you are being unfairly persecuted? Oh, right, I remember. And so does Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
A quick-witted Twitter user, @muskrat_john, saw the similarity too, and matched up the social media 10 year challenge with current events to give us this gem:
BuzzFeed writer Anne Helen Peterson also sees the through line:
One theme of the conversations over the past 24 hours = how deeply familiar this look is. It's the look of white patriarchy, of course, but that familiarity — that banality — is part of what prompts the visceral reaction. This isn't spectacular. It's life in America. pic.twitter.com/TmziDwAjYA
— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) January 21, 2019
As you might imagine, Peterson is seeing a fair amount of criticism from the right over pointing out what’s obvious to so many. Funny how those who are whinging about how Sandmann’s age should shield him from criticism were notably silent when Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin or Tamir Rice were being dragged and blamed for their own deaths.
The Familiar Smug Smile Of Brett Kavanaugh curated from Above the Law
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