Videos Show a Collision of 3 Groups That Spawned a Fiery Political Moment

While totally opposed to trump, it's unfair to demonise these young men. It was indeed more nuanced than it at first seemed. What remains true however is that a religious school was using young people, taking them to a political pro-life march, wearing maga hats, which are political and controversial. The faults with them should not have stood by. They should have moved the young people away immediately. Demonising young men, when it's trump that has created a poisonous atmosphere in the US is a distraction.

Just my opinion as a parent for whatever it's worth. From this video the people who call themselves Hebrew Israelites were the aggressors not the Native Americans. If one of these boys were my child I would be EXTREMELY angry at the chaperones of this trip, these are children who should have been immediately gathered up and taken away from this confrontation!! This could have all been avoided if the adults in the situation would have acted responsibly instead leaving a teen age boy in that position. they are all very fortunate nothing tragic happened.

The New York Times has done a good job of examining this event, (or non-event), and trying to explain in a fair way what happened. Nevertheless, people will continue to look at the video through their own colored glasses, and interpret it all in different ways. That is the human condition I suppose, and there's not a lot we can do about it. But I think it's time to stop blaming the people in these videos for anything. Nobody got hurt, they all engaged in relating to one another in much the same way people do at any public event. It's fair to have opinions on political topics, but we should try to be more humane about it, and not attack people for the way they look. I've heard people being very critical of these boys because some of them were wearing MAGA hats, or being critical of Mr. Philips for whatever reason. Don't judge a book by it's cover. Before you judge people, try talking to them. Not everyone in a MAGA hat is an idiot. And, surprise, not everyone wearing a Vietnam Veteran hat is a hero. Talk to them and decide for yourself. Then have a little heart and try to be nice.

What kind of supposedly religious school let’s their students wear regalia very strongly associated with white supremicism to an official school event?

I don’t understand the people who claim that MAGA isn’t racist. Thanks to new MAGA policies, we have thousands of children and babies locked up in concentration camps along our border. Most of these kids will never recover from the trauma of being separated from their family. Lifelong issues with trust and love. My Catholic Sunday school teacher would never have supported these racist and abhorrent policies.

This story is a huge clue that may hold promise and possibility for serious transformation from our primitive tribal nature. Nathan Phillips' final words on the video hold the most promise; I believe he said, sincerely, "Yes, let's make America great again." Then the video ended. I will never forget the significance of this event. White Supremacists and conservative Catholic single-issue anti-abortion activists elected an ignorant narcissistic lying bigot to our highest office. This is just the start of a re-education of the American electorate. Nathan Phillips and the other Native American activist --who said the Catholic white boys from Covington Catholic should/could/might "be told to go back to Europe" -- were probably the two people filled with the most wisdom in that video. Wow -- a serious clue to our dysfunctional pathology -- a serious clue to our disintegrating culture led by an Imbecile-in-Chief. Seriously, I'd tend to vote for Nathan Phillips as president. We need more Americans like him. We don't need more loud-mouth hate in America.

Hopefully, this story will increase needed intelligent discourse throughout communities. I'm looking forward to reading and understanding the Black Hebrew Israelites protesters better at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/black-hebrew-israelites-covington-catholic.html?module=inline Conservative Catholics have along history, and it leads to the dangers of a Theocracy.

I'm so happy cell phone videos and social media didn't exist when I did stupid things I regret now back when I was a teen!

No matter how many times, from several angles, I view the video footage, the boys are still the worst behaved in the crowd. All identifiable "mockers" should be immediately expelled from their school. It is most obvious that the Native American group was trying to distract the boys from the Israelites, and to urge them to calm down. The smirks on the boys' faces should have been slapped off by chaperones nearby. Sandmann is a bully of the Trumpet ilk. I saw nothing improper among the gatherings of the Indigenous Peoples' March nor of the Israelites' gathering. The teens were disgustingly biased, insulting, and totally out of control..... Is this the American way, land of the free, home of the brave?

Whoa! Will everyone just pause for a moment and consider why these nice Catholic boys were in DC to begin with? It was to help support doctrine denying women dominion over their own bodies and reproductive choices. What also got lost in the hysteria was that counter demonstrating women and mere passerby were derided as "sluts" and otherwise harassed. Face it, these guys were on a mission aided and abetted by adults who purport to teach and guide them and those who, for better or worse, govern all of us.

Why was there such a rush to judge this? Did it look like a way to make a point about Trump, conservatives, liberals, Native Americans, or what? Where were the chaperones in all of this mess? Why did the chaperones allow the students to wear the caps? They could have easily told them that the caps weren't to be worn until the students were home. And why is the school taking students to the annual March for Life? Why did the parents allow it? I can understand having a trip to DC to see the government at work, to tour the historic landmarks but not to see an event that can and does turn into something that is contentious and might involve the police. I've read quite a number of idiotic comments on Facebook and the NY Times. What this has turned into is a blame game and name-calling. There's no reason to send death threats to anyone and those who have ought to be ashamed of themselves. What are we teaching those students and others when we jump to conclusions based upon nothing? We're not teaching them to be thoughtful, to consider what they say before they say it, that every person deserves a chance. No, we're demonstrating the same foolhardiness that teens exhibit except that teens are taking their clues from us on how to be adults. We've just given them another reason to be immature.

A fracturing Nation is on display. There is no longer a common community, of sharing a belief in America. This is to someone's advantage but it doesn't benefit any citizens as far as I can tell. This was a clash of cultures, and each group applied their beliefs to the other's behavior. Thank God no one had a gun. For my part, I will be promoting school anti-bullying programs. It is probably too late to get adults to learn how to behave respectfully to each other, but it's not too late for children to learn how to get along despite cultural differences. Programs like the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program reduce violent and sexual assault, and I believe they could prevent a child from bringing a weapon to school. We all come from some cultural subdivision, but when in public we need some basic shared values of behavior. Olweus, internationally recognized as the most effective bullying prevention program, builds community in schools. All it takes is a willing principal to get started. Our Nation is changing, diversifying. At the same time, we are facing new social, technological and climatic shifts. Let's find a better way to navigate these challenges. As Americans.

It is clear that most of the blame can be attributed to the chaperones who should have kept their students under control. How did they allow their students to make such a scene. Sure the others in this exaggerated non-event bear some of the blame but the adult chaperones should have know better. As others have said the MAGA hats are the new symbol of racism and bigotry that did not help the situation.

Where were the boys' chaperones? Wasn't this a school trip? The whole thing makes me think less of Catholic schools in general.

If not for the language of POTUS, MAGA would not be viewed as a racist symbol, but as a sign of political affiliation. Those who have a problem with this designation need to contact the White House and voice their concerns about Trump's racist dog whistles, instead of shrugging, and claiming he doesn't really mean it. The teens pictured in the various videos ranged from wildly disrespectful, to befuddled by events that were unfolding in front of them. Yes, the Black Hebrew Israelites were also wildly disrespectful, they always are to anyone who is not a part of their cult. The Indigenous elder got caught in the middle of two groups on a collision course of testosterone fuled territory marking. The chaperones are the most to blame for allowing this to escalate instead of encouraging students to put into practice turning the other cheek. Also, why weren't D.C. police called to diffuse the situation? I am no longer Catholic, but to Elder Phillips I say, "Blessed be the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of. God." Something both the Covington Teens and the Black Hebrew Israelites would do well to make note of regarding this situation.

These students don't look victimized. They don't act traumatized and prayerful. In fact, they look like they are having a lot of fun, enjoying themselves heartily. And they look highly entertained by Mr. Phillip's singing and drumming. So we should just believe the student who says he stood in front of Mr. Phillips not smirking, but smiling and in silent prayer? How come white kids always get to be kids, involved in doing what kids their age do? Michael Brown was 17. He did what kids often do, shoplifted from a convenience store. But he was described in the media as a man, a criminal who had committed a brutal larceny. Trayvon Martin was 17 & his walk home made his stalker fearful enough to call 911. Tamir Rice, 13, was doing what kids his age do, playing with a toy gun all by himself in a playground. But police said he was big for his age & even though no one was yelling & screaming around him, they said he was an active shooter. Seems like "nuance" & childhood just aren't available for black youth.

Absolutely nothing to see here, folks. An utter waste of time, the whole episode.

an antidote to the selective editing of the video and the commentator's description is found in the story in the Washington Post, for which the url is attached. The lack of neutrality in this report is evidenced when the commentator choses to call the Indigenous marchers activists and call the students, just students. Surely, people coming to this political rally wearing MAGA hats are fairly labelled as agitators or protesters, and surely, given the lack of descriptor used for the students, Indigeneous people would be more fairly described as Indigenous peoples (full stop); or perhaps fairness would have led to using the word protestors to describe both. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/23/nothing-justifies-what-covington-students-did/?utm_term=.c0fc93f07cc0

This video is enlightening, and appreciated. (Although I do believe that the behavior of the Covington kids, while not as racist as social media would like us to think, is still gross.) What is bothersome is that, once again - and to no one's surprise - the current administration, instead of using this as an educational moment, has floated a possible invite to the White House to the Covington kids. I was going to say that this sends a terrible and scary message to the MAGA crowd, but it send s a terrible message to everyone.

History tells us a group of teenagers, wearing provocative paraphernalia (the meaning of which they don't truly understand), with a mob mentality is a gang if the boys are minorities poor white kids. The police would have been involved. Conversely, a group of of well-off catholic school boys, wearing provocative paraphernalia and protesting a woman's right to choose (neither of which they truly understand), with a mob mentality a should be given the benefit of the doubt? The boys know what MAGA means and know what Pro-Life means, but don't know that Black Israelites are farcical and also don't understand how bad it looks for them to engage a small group of Indigenous Americans? I think the context in which we look at this event should be expanded further still.

And here's what you do when your rich, entitled kid is thrown into the political spotlight: hire a PR firm to coach and dress him for his upcoming on-camera interview. It was laughable! The only people impressed with his performance were the Sandmann family and the PR firm! Turning him into Shirley Temple can't erase that smirk on his face or the hate his MAGA hat portrays. I'm sure all his classmates were gathered around the TV laughing, hooting and hollering thinking he pulled off a good one! We face a very sad future. We should all be worried.

Watching the entire video only confirmed what I had already thought: the Hebrew Israelites are a bunch of crass provocateurs, and the students are a bunch of understandably immature, but also disrespectful little brats. Even the students who did not verbalize spoke volumes with their MAGA hats. It's different than just wearing a Trump hat or T shirt; there is definitely a connotation of white supremacy in MAGA that there is no denying. As for the smug smiling kid, I work in mental health and have to "read" people all day long. There is no way that was a face of someone giving a friendly smile; it was meant to show defiance and derision of the Native American man,

When I was Sandmann’s age, I too was a jerk. I remember making derogatory comments about gay people, but not to their face. I know well Sandmann’s body language. It screams confrontation, and if not hate for Mr. Phillips, certainly distain. It is disturbing that Mr. Sandmann had no respect for an elderly man. Would he have confronted in the same way a muscular young Native American? Today, I am the antithesis of my teenage years. Perhaps in a year or two, Sandmann will be wearing a “Polar Bears Against Trump” hat, or at least a “Save the Creation” hat.

After viewing this video can’t say I’ve seen a more convincing reason for a woman president.

The events open bigger questions: what have the students learned about US history, the destruction of native American populations, land and culture? Who at the school determines that the focus of a high school trip to Washington is a Pro-Life march, rather than history, government, and justice? It looks like, since most stuff was shut down in Washington, there was nothing left for bands of angry people to do but yell at and disrespect each other in the center of democracy.

i did not make a mistake or rush to judgment. I believed what I saw and read. The fault is not in me or my fellow consumers of news. The fault here is in editorial control over what is put out. However you want to slice it the kids chanting that Hollywood invented, mockery of Native song is a problem. Whether or not they know it is a mockery can be debated, but the fact is they are all smart enough to know better, why don't they? I have a memory and I see old TV shows and kids were much more mature at younger ages in the past. Social changes that end up grooming kids to be lifelong consumers account for some of that but lowering of educational standards and expectations also plays an equal or maybe larger role.

Thank you so much for this and other video reconstructions. It is so important for context. I only wish we could get this type of reporting earlier to diffuse viral inconsistencies, although I realize it takes a few days to gather all he pieces. This is true journalism.

Oh, for God's sake, why not be honest about what happened. Some black guys hurled racist comments against white students, who did nothing in return. A drum-beating Indian activist approached and a kid smiled in what appears to be a good-natured way. Some of the white students made what appears to be an insulting gesture. And then -- the white kids were pilloried by our racist press and, it seems, just about everybody else. What a setup it was, right -- evil white male Trump supporters and virtuous Native American? It fits the narratie. I'm no Trump supporter and I have always fought for civil rights. But when we condemn these kids because of their sex and the color of their skin, we're just as bigoted as the most rabid Trump supporter ever was.

The unlikely convergence (NY Times term) of Americans didn't become a firestorm. It was the rushed, incomplete, biased, and agenda-filled media coverage that created the firestorm.

Where are the social justice warriors and media outlets condemning the Israelites racist and anti-gay chants? Why the silence? Perhaps doesn't fit the narrative for them.

CNN took a quick look and ran with it."A smirking, MAGA wearing, white privileged Catholic high school student challenged a Native-American Vietnam vet." Nick Sandmann said on NBC this AM he was smiling to calm the situation and not showing any agression. As most did, CNN didn't apology for their biased reporting. They have abandoned all journalistic standards for a scoop. Shame on them.

Full video available on You Tube as: Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan, and it begins: Before your were worshipping totem pelts, you were a child of God. ( apparently intended for the Indigenous people present there). I don't know how anyone could be more offensive. A new low.

Unfortunately there appear to be no captions on this video, and without knowing what was said, I am unable to comment.

Falsely claiming to be a Vietnam Vet is disgraceful and insulting to those who were there. I n addition the vulgar,racist group calling themselves "Black Hebrew Israelites" are neither Hebrew or Israelites. It's much easier for the press to condemn teenagers who support our president then it is for them to seek the truth.

CNN took a quick look and ran with it. "A smirking, MAGA wearing white privileged Catholic high school student challenged a Native-American Vietnam vet." Nick Sandmann said on NBC he was smiling to calm the situation. As most did, CNN didn't apology for their biased reporting. They have abandoned all journalistic standards for a scoop. Shame on them.

I hope the kid who hired a personal publicist didn't exhaust his whole piggy bank on the retainer. Andy Warhol allotted him fifteen minutes of fame, no more. He's fading even now. A couple of talk shows and he's a goner.

Yes, think before you publish. David Brooks, Blake the media, blame social media, blame the readers. Perhaps you, too, are to blame for portraying events like a reality show. Have you now restored decorum?

Watch the complete video

I still don't understand the caps that say MAGA. America Is great and will always be great. Fools wearing a cap have no idea what is going on with the majority of people in our Republic! It

The overarching questions for me is why/how the media interpreted this so wrong? It appears the students were harassed, the tribal chief approached the students and the so-called Israelites were acting poorly; yet the kids were reported as the ones who 'surrounded' the elder in a menacing way. The interpretative skills of the reporters should be critiqued. I expect better of the news outlets. A good friend of mine is a Benedictine monk and when I visit the monastery it's easy to leave the noise of the news when I return to society I find that usually I have missed -- nothing. Maybe that is a statement of what reporters mostly contribute; although, they are crucial for democracy to work.

A metaphor for who we are these days.

Nathan Phillips, a Native American male, was and is the hero in this event. He stopped the possible out-burst of anger and violence by chanting and drumming a Native American prayer. Blessed are the peace makers. We are focusing on the students and the Native American. Where were the Hebrew Israelites in all of this? I believe they were in-sighting hate and bear some responsibility. Mr. Phillips, thank you for stepping in and bringing people to their senses,

This non-story became a firestorm simply because of the click hungry media looking for more outrage to exploit. When the story of "teens ganging up on a Native American elder" fell apart, the same media outlets have responded with non apologies about their coverage of the events.

Like many, when I first saw the video all I saw was a smug, privileged, Trump hat wearing, white bully blocking the way and getting into the face of of an elderly Native American man. I saw a rowdy bunch of bullies surrounding and mocking the man. The fact that Nathan Phillips actually approached them changes everything, even if his intentions were well meaning. Did he really think he would defuse the situation by getting into some kid's face and drumming inches from it. I don't like the Covington students' politics, but let's remember that they are still just kids. The Hebrew Israelites engaged them and challenged their thinking by calling them incest babies, that's going to be really effective! The media curated the content to tell the story in a way that was sure to invite divisiveness. The adults did not demonstrate what respectful disagreement looks like, the adults failed to be good role models. Maybe next time we can take it a little more slowly.

Thanks, NYT, for some sorely needed context. What a hash that situation was- flaws to be found on all sides, far different from the narrative racing across social media.

predictably, those who like to take sides (e.g., MAGA-lovers vs. MAGA-haters) will see what they choose to see in the video... but having spent lots of time in less tolerant (to be kind) countries, I choose instead to go beyond our current version of tribalism and be proud of and amazed by the freedom we enjoy here to not only be diverse in our thinking but to behave in public in ways that are unthinkable elsewhere... ways that would see us end up in jail, in morgues or in several pieces at the bottom of a body of water... let's take a deep breathe, pause and celebrate that what happened with the Catholic boys, the chanting Indian and the (despicable) other group can only happen in a very few places on Earth

How about adding the video of the white kids harassing a young woman during that same period? Even more context for the general attitude of the boys, which was testosterone-laced in true frat-boy style. Boys will be boys, they say. I think boys need to learn some decency and respect, which would start by ditching the MAGA hats.

It strikes me as odd that a group of young people, and their families, seem to be unaware of the teachings of Jesus. Is it Mark 9:35 where He says "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all?" Indeed, what would Jesus have done had he been in D.C. that day? I have a hard time imagining His face photo-shopped onto yours, wearing your red baseball cap.

The larger video context shows one thing unambiguously, the media's inability to properly report on acts of explicit racism. Yes, there were other things on display too, but the actions of the teenagers still remains awful as a group and should be reported as such. Social media is often terrible but so is the coddling of bad behavior by privileged white people (who can hire publicists).

I watched the entire video made by one of the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI). It was almost two hours long. It shows the BHI's as the main agitators, calling the Native Americans and the High School boys every name in the book, plus some, calling a priest all sorts of names. The boys stayed back and away from the BHI's, there was a back and forth, I heard no insults thrown by the boys, but they were chanting their school chants and various pro Trump things (MAGA, etc.). Nothing racist. The BHI's were actually threatening physical harm to some other guy, who was skateboarding around in circles, he didn't seem to be with any group. At one point the Native Americans approached the boys (they had previously approached the BHI guys, and were insulted yet again by them). When the boys were approached by the elder, they joined in the chanting and singing, dancing, The BHI narrator even commented that "wow, the elder calmed the boys down." Were some of the boys laughing? Joking? Even making jokes? Yea, they were, you had maybe a hundred teenage boys, likely the first time in DC for a lot of them, possibly the first time they ever saw a Native American singing, dancing, beating a drum, etc. The elder scene was like a minute or so in a video of almost two hours. The boys real crime was being Catholic while wearing a MAGA hat, otherwise, it was a typical day of protesting in the nation's capital. The BHI's should be excoriated, but hey, that's not much of a story, lets go with the MAGA.

Angry divided America! Used to be our differences were our strength. But now, thanks to Trump and Republicans, it will be our demise.