MAGA-hatted teens harass/mock Native Americans at Indigenous Peoples March

[Vatrilian]

I watched the 'full video' of the teens and the Native man, and the teens still look really obviously in the wrong. The Native man approaches the teens -- yes, to confront them, as is his right -- several feet from them -- and then the boys walk within inches of him, surrounding him, and start hopping up and down, mockingly imitating the chant with smirks on their faces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=L-2z3en-oIo what time stamp do you see the kids surround Nathan Phillips? He clearly walks into the crowd because the kids thought he was defending them from the racist black group calling them dusty crackers and school shooters for over an hour.

[Dead Moose Fandango]

Huh. Who knew. When you wear a MAGA hat, people automatically suspect you're a racist douchebag. Because wearing clothing that has the political slogan of the racist douchebag President can lead to people judging you by that clothing.

I'm happy to find out that it seems the teenagers didn't do anything. I hate when children cause shit like this. Hopefully, the media that reported too early will apologize for the false accusations.

[Levelfive]

What behavior? They were called the most vile things for hours and then Nathan Phillips went to them and banged a drum in the minors face to defend a racist genocidal group. This is FAKE NEWS the mainstream media can't even defend this anymore. The kids handled it with class and exactly how any one can expect a teenage boy to react.

Right, and I'm sure the whole jeering and doing the tomahawk chop thing was misunderstood because it's really their high school's prayer signal for peace.

[Vatrilian]

"banged a drum in the minors face"

Are we supposed to be sympathetic here? If sensitive snowflake MAGA piglets can't take that, I really question how they can call out their dreaded SJW foes.

They didn't elicit this attention it was the drive by media trying to create a narrative. No one is being a snowflake. If the roles were reversed the leftist group would have assaulted the man. Look at the footage from the Kavanaugh hearings and protests. They didn't swear, they behaved like a young christian kid should.

[cronotose]

I watched the 'full video' of the teens and the Native man, and the teens still look really obviously in the wrong. The Native man approaches the teens -- yes, to confront them, as is his right -- several feet from them -- and then the boys walk within inches of him, surrounding him, and start hopping up and down, mockingly imitating the chant with smirks on their faces.

You don't think that whether or not they were provoked in any way changes the situation, in comparison to them going out of their way to harass some innocent bystander for no reason, as the story was originally presented?

Provocation in general in most people's eyes at the very least significantly lessens fault, especially in children.

[Vatrilian]

Right, and I'm sure the whole jeering and doing the tomahawk chop thing was misunderstood because it's really their high school's prayer signal for peace.

The jeering, really are you out of your mind? The dance they did was part of their school march and done before football games confirmed by ABC news that had to do a correction on the story and you still defend Nathan Phillips, a liar and known race baiter? The guy does this for a living.

[infinitemeridian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=L-2z3en-oIo what time stamp do you see the kids surround Nathan Phillips? He clearly walks into the crowd because the kids thought he was defending them from the racist black group calling them dusty crackers and school shooters for over an hour.

Around 1:13 you can see the kids start hooting and hollering and jumping around. Even if he walks into the crowd, the behavior from these kids is unacceptable.

[Dystemper]

Remember folks. Daelek is fine with death threats.

Daelak and Gilrak , I think are the same person, are proof that lieftism is a mental disease. They both support violence towards anyone they don't agree with, treat Christianity as something evil and Christians should be wiped out. I truly fear for the safety of anyone near them. Why they gave not been permabanned from these forums is beyond me as they repeatedly violate TOS but never seem to be punished .

[Levelfive]

Yep, all that needs to be said really. just because there is another group of condemnable jerks there doesn’t make their behavior here the least bit defendable. They’re pro trump and anti choice so I feel no obligation to feel bad for them.

This is a pretty summation: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...an-viral-video

"Over the last couple days I’ve been watching the unfolding reaction and re-reactions to the video of the confrontation between Native American activist and elder Nathan Phillips and a crowd of high school students from Covington, Kentucky on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The whole story is a good example of how we can react quickly to a zoomed in (both literally and metaphorically) video and miss a lot of what led up to it, as well as some key context. With that said, though, when you add all the context I’m not sure it’s all that different from what it looked like on the first go, despite some now saying new evidence and new videos changes everything.

Saturday night and into Sunday I watched numerous different videos of the encounter itself and what led up to it. So let me give you my impression of what happened as well as links to videos and accounts which can help you come to your own conclusions.

First, the initial videos could easily give the impression that Phillips (the man with the drum) was in the midst of marching in a protest when he was surrounded by a crowd of white teenagers in MAGA hats. That’s not what happened.

Let’s start with some background.

A Native American group (The Indigenous People’s March) had marched to the Memorial earlier earlier in the day. Later a group of teenage boys from a Catholic High School in Covington, Kentucky were also there. They were in town for the March for Life, an anti-abortion march. They had apparently congregated at the Memorial as a staging point to wait for buses to leave. While these two very different things were happening, there was a third much smaller group of so-called “Black Israelites” – maybe half a dozen men – who had been there seemingly for most of the day haranguing both groups. One video I watched from earlier in the day shows the Black Israelites haranguing the Native American marchers for “worshipping totem poles” and in other ways needing to repent to God.

I’m not sure how common they are in other cities or parts of the country. If you live in New York or DC or Philadelphia you’ve probably seen them. They’re mainly known for a form of very aggressive street preaching, often combative and using racial epithets. They are often and not-unfairly viewed as a cult. In a later interview, Phillips said they reminded him of the protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church, the ones who used to go to the people’s funerals and rant hateful things about gay people. That’s a pretty good analogy.

In any case, at some point late in the afternoon, the Black Israelites are yelling at the High School kids and vice versa. The more aggressive language, at least at the start, is coming from the Black Israelites, using homophobic slurs and using the N-word directed at one of the High Schoolers who’s African-American (seemingly the only one.) It’s not totally clear to me who started what here. But you’ve got the hyper-aggressive black supremacist group and this crowd of white high school boys in MAGA hats. So I’m not sure much of a spark was needed.

It’s this situation Phillips described as getting out of control when he decided to intervene to settle things down or at least try to put himself between the two groups. Phillips walks between the two groups and into the group of students. The group of students parts around him and pretty quickly he’s surrounded by high school students who are variously laughing, jeering and chanting. The one student whose face you’ve no doubt seen doesn’t move aside like the others and that’s where you have the standoff the video of which went viral.

As this is happening, the kids surrounding the two are taunting Phillips and laughing and variously goofing off like high school guys do. The entire tableau is defined by the fact that Phillips, the Native American elder with a dark complexion, is surrounded by lily white teens probably half of whom are wearing MAGA caps. They’re all laughing, taunting and doing ‘tomahawk chops’ in response to Phillips. I’ve seen various people claiming in the light of the new videos that the kids might simply be milling around or laughing uncomfortably or even chanting in unison with Phillips’ drumming. That’s a stretch by any definition and the ‘tomahawk chop’ hand motions put any such claims to rest. It’s already a pretty riled up situation. But it’s crystal clear their reaction to Phillips is one of jeering and racial taunting.

The boy who was at the center of the confrontation on the other side of Phillips, Nick Sandman, later released a statement in which he claims he was “startled and confused” and attempting to defuse the situation by “remaining motionless and calm.” He says he was saying a “silent prayer” in the viral video in hopes that the situation would not get out of hand.

I’m sure there was some element of being startled or even confused. Few of us are ever thinking only one thing in a chaotic situation. But I see no way to reconcile Sandman’s claims with what’s actually on the video. He can be seen hipping and hawing around Phillips like the rest of the kids just before the stand off and he seems more cocky and defiant than anything like trying to appeal for calm in the video that went viral. Eyewitnesses claim they heard the boys making various denigrating remarks about Native Americans. I heard some of those on the video but not all of them. Phillips and Sandman gave conflicting accounts of whether Sandman refused to move as Phillips tried to walk up the steps. At least the video itself makes it hard to resolve that.

The original video especially is so loaded – smiling white boy in a MAGA cap standing on the verge of laughing in the face of an impassive Native American beating a ceremonial drum – that it’s probably impossible for anyone to look at it and not project all sorts of beliefs, fears, grievances about the society we live in. But again, I don’t think Sandman’s explanation is credible. I think he decided to stand his ground, get in the guy’s face, and smile a kind of satisfied smile to show he wasn’t backing down. Meanwhile, his friends are surrounding both of them, goofing, taunting, jeering. Again, the chopping hand motion tells the story.

One side note that probably deserves more attention. There were apparently chaperones with the boys. Again, these are high school students on a school trip. Whatever you think of the rest of it, all the videos show numerous points at which adults should have intervened but apparently didn’t.

The upshot is that when you see all the videos, not just the one that initially spread like wildfire, you get a lot more context to what led up to that video moment. But it doesn’t greatly change the substance of what you see on the video, which is a middle aged Native American activist/elder beating a ceremonial drum in the face of what appears to be a bemused and cocky teenager while his classmates surrounding them, mostly wearing MAGA caps, jeer and taunt the man with chopping motions. To me, Sandman’s grin looks self-satisfied and arrogant. You can see that part as well as I can. So make your own judgments." More in the link.

[Every Pwny]

I watched the 'full video' of the teens and the Native man, and the teens still look really obviously in the wrong. The Native man approaches the teens -- yes, to confront them, as is his right -- several feet from them -- and then the boys walk within inches of him, surrounding him, and start hopping up and down, mockingly imitating the chant with smirks on their faces.

The kids were doing school cheers and jumping up and down prior to the adult drummer walking into the center of their group to band the drum inches from one of the kids faces. The kids didn't know why the drummer was there, maybe they thought he was joining in on the school cheers they were doing right before he walked into the center of them. Do you think they should have just stood deathly still while he drums?

Additionally there were more people than just the student, there were people from the general public there surrounding him as well trying to get pictures with their phone.

[Cizr]

Or maybe you could just actually use some common sense, logic, remain objective, instead of trying to politicise everything, relying on stupid internet terms you read somewhere to try and sound intellectual, and remain objective, and realise not *everything* is "left vs right" and has to be argued and whined about?

But thats exactly what you are doing.

You just want the kid to do something bad while he literally did nothing wrong.

[infinitemeridian]

The kids were doing school cheers and jumping up and down prior to the adult drummer walking into the center of their group to band the drum inches from one of the kids faces. The kids didn't know why the drummer was there, maybe they thought he was joining in on the school cheers they were doing right before he walked into the center of them. Do you think they should have just stood deathly still while he drums?

Additionally there were more people than just the student, there were people from the general public there surrounding him as well trying to get pictures with their phone.

It's obvious the guy is old - they should have backed up and given him space. Even if they were jumping up and down before he got there, it's clear that morphed into mocking.

"Joining in the school cheers" - yes, a stoic native american man beating a drum is going to join in cheers of "build that wall". You guys are really grasping here.

[Vatrilian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=L-2z3en-oIo

THE WHOLE VIDEO how can you defend Nathan Phillips?

[Every Pwny]

It's obvious the guy is old - they should have backed up and given him space. Even if they were jumping up and down before he got there, it's clear that morphed into mocking.

"Joining in the school cheers" - yes, a stoic native american man beating a drum is going to join in cheers of "build that wall". You guys are really grasping here.

They didn't cheer "build the wall" the video is clear on this, this is why you need to watch the videos. This is exactly the kind of false narrative that put us in this situation.

What do you think the kids would have thought the adult drummer was there to do?

[Vatrilian]

It's obvious the guy is old - they should have backed up and given him space. Even if they were jumping up and down before he got there, it's clear that morphed into mocking.

"Joining in the school cheers" - yes, a stoic native american man beating a drum is going to join in cheers of "build that wall". You guys are really grasping here.

Except no one chanted build the wall. That too has been exposed as fake news. The guy knows exactly what he is doing, he is a career race baiter. They had to wait there because their bus was picking them up. Watch the video. And side note why wouldn't Native Americans and specifically this group, a xenophobic group who is against European immigration, not want a wall?

[Hella clutch]

Except no one chanted build the wall. That too has been exposed as fake news. The guy knows exactly what he is doing, he is a career race baiter. They had to wait there because their bus was picking them up. Watch the video. And side note why wouldn't Native Americans and specifically this group, a xenophobic group who is against European immigration, not want a wall?

You keep claiming he’s a career race baiter and I’ve never heard of this person before, must be a fairly unknown one to go unnoticed this whole time.

[Daelak]

Daelak and Gilrak , I think are the same person, are proof that lieftism is a mental disease. They both support violence towards anyone they don't agree with, treat Christianity as something evil and Christians should be wiped out. I truly fear for the safety of anyone near them. Why they gave not been permabanned from these forums is beyond me as they repeatedly violate TOS but never seem to be punished .

We aren't, but good try. The children's "version" of Christianity is just as fucked up as the other groups, however their leader is in power, and has done veritsbly unchristian things to children at the border. They are all brainwashed by conservative dogma.

[THE Bigzoman]

They didn't cheer "build the wall" the video is clear on this, this is why you need to watch the videos. This is exactly the kind of false narrative that put us in this situation.

What do you think the kids would have thought the adult drummer was there to do?

I think the drummer was there to stir the pot. IRL trolling if you will.

Going in a crowd and doing a chant unannounced isn't going to to a healing message across because your audience has no idea what you're doing and why you're doing it. Someone who is well versed in a Native American culture that's far from mainstream would also know that their culture is unknown to most of the population.

[Zython]

Has anyone come up with an explanation of the tomahawk chops yet, or has the PR firm not put out a press release on that?

[Independent voter]

The Native American guy was on NPR, National Public Radio. this morning. They asked him why he went to confront those teens.

He said he sort of messed up and stuck between two groups so he banged his drum.

He's just as guilty as the teens and he's like in his 70's.