The Noble Savage at the Lincoln Memorial

The Covington Catholic High School saga continues. Glenn Beck and Ben Shapiro have both released YouTube videos showing them shaking with outrage about the way the high school kids have been treated in the media. I have never seen either of them this worked up. I wonder if a watershed has been reached.

Nobody seems to have noticed, but the Noble Savage myth has played a major part in this fiasco. The original and fraudulent story was taken entirely from the testimony of Nathan Phillips, the “native elder,” and the video he supplied.

Surely, under normal circumstances, news outlets would have checked it. I was taught two basic rules of journalism: first, in any controversy, always get statements from both sides. Second, for any assertion of fact, get three sources. Obviously, in this case, neither rule was followed. By the biggest names in journalism. Why?

Because, I suggest, the informant was an Indian. The Noble Savage myth clicked in. Because Indians are considered perfectly natural beings, it follows, everyone supposes, that they cannot tell a lie. That would imply a post-Eden, fallen consciousness; Indians are still in the Edenic state, incapable of sin. They cannot lie any more than a woodchuck can.

This is why, back in the 19th century, Indians were regularly used to peddle patent medicines, and the medicines themselves were usually claimed to be Indian herbal remedies. In fact, there is no Indian tradition of herbal medicine. But if an Indian says it works, it must be true.

A con artist who is also an Indian can make hay forever on this popular prejudice. A con artist who is not an Indian is liable to say they are, to reap the same benefit: Carlos Casteneda’s Don Juan, the real author of “Black Elk Speaks,” the author of the famous speech attributed to Chief Seattle; Grey Owl, real name Archie Belaney. Not to mention any current Democratic presidential contenders.

So everyone took Phillips’ claims about what happened, and about being a Vietnam War veteran, as necessarily true. Not just the media, but almost everyone who saw the original story, including just about everyone on the right. The bubble probably burst only because one of the students made their own statement on their own initiative on social media, finally inspiring someone to go back and check.

I doubt any of it could have happened were an Indian not involved.

And while this gives great benefits to dishonest Indians—who can, for example, claim anything they want in treaty negotiations, and the courts will uphold their version—it does great harm to most Indians. Because the corollary of being an innocent forest creature is that they supposedly cannot think for themselves, have no free will, and so for their own safety cannot be given the responsibilities of an adult human.

White Privilege

Readers may have been following the current “fake news” surrounding the boys of Covington (Kentucky) Catholic School, in Washington for the March for Life. Initial media reports were that they had surrounded and harassed an old Indian man there to protest for Indian causes.

And absolutely everyone immediately condemned them. Not just the big outlets like the New York Times and CNN; also right-wing sources like National Review. The school’s principal apologized. The mayor of Covington apologized. The bishop of Covington apologized. People on Twitter were openly calling for the kids, 14 and 15 year olds, to be beaten up or killed.

And it turns out they were just minding their own business, waiting for a bus home. They were first harassed with racist taunts by a group of black militants, calling them “crackers,” “school shooters” and the like. Then the Indians marched right into them and the old guy started banging his drum and chanting loudly right under one kid’s nose. Another Indian next to him told them all to “go back to Europe.”

And mostly all the Catholic schoolkids seemed to do was keep smiling, stay calm, and try to ignore them.

All of this you perhaps already know.

I bring it up because it illustrates the true “white privilege.”

When the original story broke, everyone condemned the kids—just kids--without hearing their side of the story, or taking the trouble to see extended video of the action. Why? Apparently simply because they were white.

Even the short clip on which all the original condemnation was based was perfectly ambiguous. It showed the old Indian nose to nose with a Catholic kid. But who was getting into whose face? Who approached whom, and who was simply standing their ground? That you cannot tell.

The kid was smiling and avoiding eye contact. The old Indian looked angry, and was loudly chanting and banging on a drum. Even in the absence of other evidence, it seems to me that the more reasonable judgment would be that it was the old Indian who was being aggressive.

Nevertheless, everyone immediately and unquestioningly condemned the white kid.

There’s white male privilege. It is the “privilege” of being assaulted by anyone while you are simply minding your own business. It is the privilege of being blamed, possibly your life ruined, just for standing on a corner in public. Nobody listens to your side—you are condemned on sight without trial or defense.

By comparison, blacks in the video visibly exploit the privilege of being openly racist, spouting absurd and prejudiced conspiracy theories about whites killing blacks to harvest their organs. Without being called on this by anyone.

Indians have the further privilege of being believed without question no matter what they say. Nobody even bothers to check their assertions, although it is standard journalistic practice to do so.

White males have only the privilege of being blamed. Of course, why not, they are in control of everything, right?

That myth simply allows them to be scapegoated at will.

Just as were, once, the Jews.