It’s been a long week for the Covington Catholic High School students. While attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C. a Native American protestor beat a drum in the face of Nick Sandmann and video of the encounter went viral, where many media outlets falsely claimed the students where the aggressors.
The ensuing reaction saw celebrities not only doxx many of the students, but also wish death upon them.
Former Charmed actress Alyssa Milano made one of the more outrageous claims. She described Donald Trump’s iconic red Make America Great Again hats, which were worn by the Covington Catholic High School students, as a new version of the Ku Klux Klan white hood.
The red MAGA hat is the new white hood.
Without white boys being able to empathize with other people, humanity will continue to destroy itself. #FirstThoughtsWhenIWakeUp
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 20, 2019
Milano would follow her Tweet up with an op-ed published in The Wrap. Milano would double down on her original statement comparing red MAGA hats to Ku Klux Klan hoods.
Milano began her commentary by admitting that “each of us saw what we wanted to see.” However, she then decides to attack the teenage boys.
“Some things in that video cannot be disputed – no matter what angle or how extended the cut is. These boys, who attend a religious school, were there on a school trip protesting against a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. Several of these boys were wearing red MAGA hats, a hat that has become synonymous with white nationalism and racism. Several were doing a ‘tomahawk chop.’ Several were laughing.”
So based on their faith and attire, they had it coming. She continues down this path and claims she saw boys “flaunting their entitlement and displaying toxic masculinity.” That’s rich coming from a wealthy actress:
“When I saw that video, I saw boys flaunting their entitlement and displaying toxic masculinity. It seemed to me like they were reflecting the white nationalism and racism that the hats on their heads have come to represent.”
Milano then declares her original Tweet to be right.
“Here’s the thing: I was right.”
She goes on to state how she won’t apologize and that she blames President Donald Trump.
“So, I won’t apologize to these boys. Or anyone who wears that hat. But I will thank them. I will thank them for lighting a fire underneath the conversation about systemic racism and misogyny in this country and the role President Donald Trump has had in cultivating it and making it acceptable.”
She then tries to connect Donald Trump to the Ku Klux Klan citing the Washington Post and Vice who reported that Donald Trump’s father Fred Trump was arrested after a riot broke out in Jamaica, New York following a Klan parade in 1927.
What Milano fails to mention in her op-ed is that both the Washington Post and Vice admit their stories are merely insinuation and innuendo in order to paint Fred Trump as a racist.
The Washington Post admits in their article, “It’s not clear from the context what role Fred Trump played in the brawl.”
Vice would similarly write, “None of the articles prove that Fred Trump was a member of the Klan, and it’s possible that he was, as Boing Boing suggested, just a bystander at the rally.”
Milano then compares Donald Trump’s policies and slogans to that of the Klan marchers in 1927 in an attempt to paint Trump and his supporters as racist.
“And by the time he ran for President, Trump bleated themes that would have appealed to those same Klan marchers who were arrested with his father in 1927: Build a wall to keep immigrants out. Ban Muslim immigrants. America first.
Make America Great Again.”
She would then make it clear that she believes everyone who supports Donald Trump and wears the red MAGA hat “identifies with an ideology of white supremacy and misogyny.”
“Let me be clear: I’m not saying everyone who voted for Trump is a racist. I’m saying that everyone who proudly wears the red hat identifies with an ideology of white supremacy and misogyny. Everyone who proudly wears those hats gives a tacit endorsement for the hatred and the violence we’ve seen these past few years.”
She goes on to declare that the “hats symbolize hate. They signal to others an embrace of policies of discrimination, oppression and exclusion.”
Finally, Milano gives an apology. Not to the teens that she willfully attacked, but apologized for being “part of a privileged white majority.”
“Still, you know what? I am sorry. I’m sorry for the decades and decades of oppression and abuses people of color have faced in this country. I’m sorry that as part of a privileged white majority we did not stop this Administration from happening. I’m sorry to those who have suffered at the hands of the Red Hats and the policies their leadership implements. See, I’m not apologizing to the Red Hats. I’m apologizing for them.”
Milano isn’t the only celebrity who is taking aim at people who wear red MAGA hats. Daredevil actor Vincent D’Onofrio expressed that people wearing MAGA hats cannot be trusted.
Robert Barnes, a lawyer who has expressed interest in representing the Covington Catholic High School teens pro-bono, threatened Milano with a libel lawsuit for her actions following the viral video involving Nathan Phillips and Nick Sandmann.
This is libel, @Alyssa_Milano. Retract & correct. #48hourstiljustice https://t.co/5DYm7KSElT
— Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) January 23, 2019
What do you make of Milano’s op-ed and statements comparing people who wear red MAGA hats to Ku Klux Klan hoods? Do you think she might find herself sued by the Covington Catholic students?