Teens Surround And Denigrate Native Americans In DC

[NERVUN]

Blackface is painting your face black and imitating a black person. A blackout is when fans and students show unity by all dressing in black, carrying black placards with some particularly spirited people painting their bodies like people do at any game. It exactly as racist as a whiteout game Ala Penn state. This was not racial.

According to the black basketball players who were being mocked and threatened by Covington crackers who painted their white skins black, it was racist. Ergo, it was racist, QED.

Knock that off right now. There's no reason to use that term.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Blackface is painting your face black and imitating a black person. A blackout is when fans and students show unity by all dressing in black, carrying black placards with some particularly spirited people painting their bodies like people do at any game. It exactly as racist as a whiteout game Ala Penn state. This was not racial.

According to the black basketball players who were being mocked and threatened by Covington crackers who painted their white skins black, it was racist. Ergo, it was racist, QED.

Pro tip my guy, don't act racist while trying to convince others that racism is bad.

[Vassenor]

-snip-

You're forgetting we're not allowed to take any approach that paints these teens as anything other than poor helpless victims of the vast magical liberal conspiracy that exists specifically to destroy them for the crime of being white.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Blackface is painting your face black and imitating a black person. A blackout is when fans and students show unity by all dressing in black, carrying black placards with some particularly spirited people painting their bodies like people do at any game. It exactly as racist as a whiteout game Ala Penn state. This was not racial.

According to the black basketball players who were being mocked and threatened by Covington crackers who painted their white skins black, it was racist. Ergo, it was racist, QED.

>"the whites are racist because blackface"
>uses an anti-white slur

Were you born in a vat of literal liquid irony or what?

[Vassenor]

Plus if everything is so clear cut, why the dredging up of the fact that Phillips got booked for underage drinking and driving without a license decades ago?

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Plus if everything is so clear cut, why the dredging up of the fact that Phillips got booked for underage drinking and driving without a license decades ago?

Nobody cares about what he did aside from possible stolen valour decades prior to the incident though?

I don't give a shit if he got a fucking ticket at age 19.

[Dumb Ideologies]

Plus if everything is so clear cut, why the dredging up of the fact that Phillips got booked for underage drinking and driving without a license decades ago?

Same reason that race-baiters keep doing investigation about the history of the kids and their families to try to "prove" that what happened must have been a racist incident despite a lack of evidence for this and the supposed "victim" acting in a provocative way in walking right through another group's protest and trying to lecture them.

There's no straightforward "good guy" or "bad guy" in the scenario, it's just ordinary people with different views doing a bit of staring and walking near each other. People from both groups seem to acted vaguely provocatively to each other, but nothing much out of the ordinary or explicitly threatening.

Because it's become politicised due to initial misleading reporting, both sides are now trying to dig around for extra "context" that will somehow turn one side completely bad. It's the only way left to push a straightforward media-friendly narrative into a place where it doesn't fit.

[Zilesistan]

Plus if everything is so clear cut, why the dredging up of the fact that Phillips got booked for underage drinking and driving without a license decades ago?

Same reason that race-baiters keep doing investigation about the history of the kids and their families to try to "prove" that what happened must have been a racist incident despite a lack of evidence for this and the supposed "victim" acting in a provocative way in walking right through another group's protest and trying to lecture them.

There's no straightforward "good guy" or "bad guy" in the scenario, it's just ordinary people with different views doing a bit of staring and walking near each other. People from both groups seem to acted vaguely provocatively to each other, but nothing much out of the ordinary or explicitly threatening.

Because it's become politicised due to initial misleading reporting, both sides are now trying to dig around for extra "context" that will somehow turn one side completely bad. It's the only way left to push a straightforward media-friendly narrative into a place where it doesn't fit.

This is epic

[Vassenor]

Plus if everything is so clear cut, why the dredging up of the fact that Phillips got booked for underage drinking and driving without a license decades ago?

Same reason that race-baiters keep doing investigation about the history of the kids and their families to try to "prove" that what happened must have been a racist incident despite a lack of evidence for this and the supposed "victim" acting in a provocative way in walking right through another group's protest and trying to lecture them.

There's no straightforward "good guy" or "bad guy" in the scenario, it's just ordinary people with different views doing a bit of staring and walking near each other. People from both groups seem to acted vaguely provocatively to each other, but nothing much out of the ordinary or explicitly threatening.

Because it's become politicised due to initial misleading reporting, both sides are now trying to dig around for extra "context" that will somehow turn one side completely bad. It's the only way left to push a straightforward media-friendly narrative into a place where it doesn't fit.

So we're still pushing deliberate provocation by Phillips even when all the videos don't show that?

[The Two Jerseys]

Same reason that race-baiters keep doing investigation about the history of the kids and their families to try to "prove" that what happened must have been a racist incident despite a lack of evidence for this and the supposed "victim" acting in a provocative way in walking right through another group's protest and trying to lecture them.

There's no straightforward "good guy" or "bad guy" in the scenario, it's just ordinary people with different views doing a bit of staring and walking near each other. People from both groups seem to acted vaguely provocatively to each other, but nothing much out of the ordinary or explicitly threatening.

Because it's become politicised due to initial misleading reporting, both sides are now trying to dig around for extra "context" that will somehow turn one side completely bad. It's the only way left to push a straightforward media-friendly narrative into a place where it doesn't fit.

So we're still pushing deliberate provocation by Phillips even when all the videos don't show that?

Well you're still pushing that intentionally walking into a crowd and proceeding to bang a drum in someone's face while chanting something in a language that nobody can understand is "defusing a tense situation"...

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Same reason that race-baiters keep doing investigation about the history of the kids and their families to try to "prove" that what happened must have been a racist incident despite a lack of evidence for this and the supposed "victim" acting in a provocative way in walking right through another group's protest and trying to lecture them.

There's no straightforward "good guy" or "bad guy" in the scenario, it's just ordinary people with different views doing a bit of staring and walking near each other. People from both groups seem to acted vaguely provocatively to each other, but nothing much out of the ordinary or explicitly threatening.

Because it's become politicised due to initial misleading reporting, both sides are now trying to dig around for extra "context" that will somehow turn one side completely bad. It's the only way left to push a straightforward media-friendly narrative into a place where it doesn't fit.

So we're still pushing deliberate provocation by Phillips even when all the videos don't show that?

It's more "inappropriate or misplaced reaction" than "deliberate provocation", so not really.

[The Lone Alliance]

Plus if everything is so clear cut, why the dredging up of the fact that Phillips got booked for underage drinking and driving without a license decades ago?

Likely the same reason why people keep digging up stuff on the school, both sides are looking for whatever additional evidence to bury the other side.

Well you're still pushing that intentionally walking into a crowd and proceeding to bang a drum in someone's face while chanting something in a language that nobody can understand is "defusing a tense situation"...

Good point, I think several people on this site aren't alone in saying violating someone's personal space and constantly banging on something over and over again would actually make someone more anxious.

[Dumb Ideologies]

Same reason that race-baiters keep doing investigation about the history of the kids and their families to try to "prove" that what happened must have been a racist incident despite a lack of evidence for this and the supposed "victim" acting in a provocative way in walking right through another group's protest and trying to lecture them.

There's no straightforward "good guy" or "bad guy" in the scenario, it's just ordinary people with different views doing a bit of staring and walking near each other. People from both groups seem to acted vaguely provocatively to each other, but nothing much out of the ordinary or explicitly threatening.

Because it's become politicised due to initial misleading reporting, both sides are now trying to dig around for extra "context" that will somehow turn one side completely bad. It's the only way left to push a straightforward media-friendly narrative into a place where it doesn't fit.

So we're still pushing deliberate provocation by Phillips even when all the videos don't show that?

Why are you accusing others of "still pushing" an inaccurate version of events? Are you not still stuck on the narrative people pushed on the basis of the initial video before the wider context emerged?

You keep asking everyone else questions but what is your position here? What is your agenda? There is no story. Why are you so desperate for there to be a story?

[Vassenor]

So we're still pushing deliberate provocation by Phillips even when all the videos don't show that?

Well you're still pushing that intentionally walking into a crowd and proceeding to bang a drum in someone's face while chanting something in a language that nobody can understand is "defusing a tense situation"...

You mean the thing the video doesn't show?

[Des-Bal]

You mean the thing the video doesn't show?

Yes, yes it does. He saw a group of people being subjected to racial abuse then walked up banging a drum and chanting at them while members of his group began racially abusing them. He never turns towards the cameras and says "Hi I'm Nathan Phillips and if one of these kids punches me It'll be really good PR" but every version of his story makes less sense than the idea that he was provoking them.

[Galloism]

Having not watched it (I’ve been working), is this a fair summation of events?

[Des-Bal]

Having not watched it (I’ve been working), is this a fair summation of events?

Pretty much yeah. You know when you see all the racism, homophobia, and direct unequivocal antagonism laid out in text it makes the fact people are scouring for wrongdoing by the white kids that much more ridiculous.

[Dumb Ideologies]

You mean the thing the video doesn't show?

Yes, yes it does. He saw a group of people being subjected to racial abuse then walked up banging a drum and chanting at them while members of his group began racially abusing them. He never turns towards the cameras and says "Hi I'm Nathan Phillips and if one of these kids punches me It'll be really good PR" but every version of his story makes less sense than the idea that he was provoking them.

"Hi, I'm Nathan Phillips, and my spirit animal's a jackass".

[Des-Bal]

Well you're still pushing that intentionally walking into a crowd and proceeding to bang a drum in someone's face while chanting something in a language that nobody can understand is "defusing a tense situation"...

FACT CHECK: Phillips is NOT chanting in a language nobody can understand he's chanting gibberish. The AIM song doesn't contain words, just vocables (think la-la-la or doot-doot-doot).

[Galloism]

Having not watched it (I’ve been working), is this a fair summation of events?

Pretty much yeah. You know when you see all the racism, homophobia, and direct unequivocal antagonism laid out in text it makes the fact people are scouring for wrongdoing by the white kids that much more ridiculous.

Reading on Detroit free press:

"There was that moment when I realized I've put myself between beast and prey," Phillips said. "These young men were beastly and these old black individuals was their prey, and I stood in between them and so they needed their pounds of flesh and they were looking at me for that."

Is it possible that Philips just severely severely misread the situation, due to implicit race and age related biases?

It’s super hard for me to imagine Black Hebrew Israelites being the prey of anyone, but maybe he legitimately thought they were due to situational misreading.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Yes, yes it does. He saw a group of people being subjected to racial abuse then walked up banging a drum and chanting at them while members of his group began racially abusing them. He never turns towards the cameras and says "Hi I'm Nathan Phillips and if one of these kids punches me It'll be really good PR" but every version of his story makes less sense than the idea that he was provoking them.

"Hi, I'm Nathan Phillips, and my spirit animal's a jackass".

"Hi, I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn sho--

Wait, that ain't it.

[Des-Bal]

Reading on Detroit free press:

"There was that moment when I realized I've put myself between beast and prey," Phillips said. "These young men were beastly and these old black individuals was their prey, and I stood in between them and so they needed their pounds of flesh and they were looking at me for that."

Is it possible that Philips just severely severely misread the situation, due to implicit race and age related biases?

It’s super hard for me to imagine Black Hebrew Israelites being the prey of anyone, but maybe he legitimately thought they were due to situational misreading.

It's totally possible. I could understand that but if he genuinely thought they were being aggressive why did he walk into the group? If he stood between them I would believe he absolutely intended to stop a fight. The way he approached those students really only makes sense if he was provoking them.

[Galloism]

Time magazine did an opinion piece that might be reasonable. Vassenor, you might want to spend some time on this one.

America is the land that nuance forgot, a place where layered discussions and complex ideas go to die. We now live in binaryland—a place where we know what we know and will abide no disagreement no matter how much evidence there is to muddy things up. If you doubt that, consider the holy mess that has been created by the Jan. 19 confrontation between a group of students from Kentucky’s Covington Catholic High School—many of whom were wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats—and Nathan Phillips, an elder with the Omaha Native American tribe, on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Here is what is absolutely, positively, don’t-ask-me-a-second-time true: Phillips was peacefully performing a traditional drum chant and approached the boys, who surrounded him mockingly, with one junior in particular staring into Phillips’ face with an expression of unmistakable smugness.

Or here is what is absolutely, positively, don’t-ask-me-a-second-time true: The students were there for an anti-abortion demonstration (Catholic school, free speech, right to assemble: it doesn’t get more First Amendment than that) when a nearby group of Black Hebrew Israelites, a religious movement known for provocation, began taunting them, calling them “incest babies” and “school shooters.”

The students confronted them and Phillips tried to ease the tension by intervening. He came nose to nose with the junior who’s the focus of the debate, who insists that he and Phillips were of like minds. In a statement, he wrote that he “believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping defuse the situation.”

Or here is what is absolutely, positively, don’t-ask-me-a-second-time true (and this time, I mean it): We don’t know what happened. We will likely never know what happened — not when so much hinges on unspoken intentions. Deal with it.

If the student had openly mimicked Phillips’ chant (which some of the other boys appear to be doing), we’d be clearer; if he had called him a name, ditto. In the most widely circulated still image, he does appear to be displaying the characteristic smirk that you can’t get through your teen years without flashing a lot. But a transition from a genuine smile to, say, a look of concern could pass through a lot of intermediary stages very fast; snap the picture at the wrong moment and all kinds of wrong impressions can be created.

The problem for the student is that there is more than a single static image: there is a video, and it doesn’t look good. When we’re trying to defuse a situation we have a whole vocabulary of nonverbal signals we use—head bobs, hand gestures, downward glances signaling submission. Most important, we back away; we don’t move into someone’s physical space. The student exhibits none of that. This appears to be a stare-down—nothing more—one that signals condescension and arrogance.

Or not. Panic makes us freeze. So does confusion. So does being a teenager torn apart by the seemingly existential imperative of being approved of by your peers and the larger human imperative of just plain being a nice person and showing a little respect to an old guy. I don’t know what was in the kid’s head in that moment—and neither do you.

So we retreat to our corners where there is certainty: It’s one more case of white, MAGA males behaving like white MAGA males. Or it’s one more case of righteous right-to-lifers being mocked by the multi-culti left for things they deeply believe.

But consider how quickly those simple interpretations fall apart. How would the argument have changed if every single thing were the same but the student had been wearing a Greenpeace hat? Would he have been protecting an elderly member of an indigenous tribe—even if he looked awkward doing it? Would he still be smug, but this time for committing the social felony of virtue signaling? What if it turned out that he didn’t care at all about Greenpeace and simply borrowed the hat from his sister on his way out of the house because it was sunny outside?

The great irony of this is that not only is there a little bit of footage of what went on; there’s a whole lot. Information does not always create certainty. A second video surfaced that runs an hour and 46 minutes, shot by one of the Black Hebrew Israelites. That ought to be enough to establish pretty conclusively what went on, but it doesn’t. More is not necessarily better when it comes to this kind of thing.

Here’s the thing about this latest pile-on: The public square is a roiling, boisterous place. Add to that how fraught things become when the whole black-brown-white human color wheel is involved. And add to that the force-multiplier of the Internet.

It is time we learn that this is not the sort of material we should use to build up absolute beliefs. We should use the oxygen required to add caveats to what we say. This does not require us to endorse both sides, but it does mean we must admit that we are not omniscient; we need not concede the ground, but we should acknowledge how shaky it is.

If the Hebrew Israelites really did call a bunch of boys “school shooters,” shame on them; same goes for the boys who did the Tomahawk chop at a Native American elder. If that elder really did try to drum some sense—literally—into the heads of the black men and the white boys, well, props for the good intentions but demerits for the execution. And if the boys themselves—including the one who’s at the center of the storm—really were behaving like young louts, consider that they’ve been around maybe 16 years, 17 tops. We call them juniors for a reason. If they feel some sting of public opprobrium, good. That’s why we evolved shame; it keeps us in line the next time. More important, that’s why we evolved parents, who enforce the lessons in more direct ways.

And for the rest of us, consider this next time: if there are few QEDs and mostly WTFs, it’s all just noise. Move on.

[The Black Forrest]

*snip*

He obviously has never been to NSG. QED and WTF induce a Pavlovian response.

He is right though. Time to close this thread.

[Telconi]

"Hi, I'm Nathan Phillips, and my spirit animal's a jackass".

"Hi, I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn sho--

Wait, that ain't it.

You never know who's going to drum and chant in your face.