(The American Dossier)
By Mike Norris, Co-Editor Jan. 22, 2019
On Friday, a short video went viral. At the National Mall, a teen wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat stood eye to eye with an elderly Indian activist while his classmates surrounded them, egging it on.
The Catholic diocese that ran the students school apologized to the activist, promised an investigation and threatened expulsion. Legislators and the media quickly and publicly condemned the students. A student from the school who wasn’t even there got death threats. Even adult film star Alyssa Milano got involved in the fray.
By Sunday, an unedited version of the video had been released, this one recorded by members of the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI) who not only were present for the incident, but instigated it. On Monday, the backtracking began with CNN publishing an article titled, “A new video shows a different side of the encounter between a Native American elder and teens in MAGA hats.”
How did it all start?
Last Friday, the first Indigenous Peoples March was held at the National Mall. By all accounts, the event was a success attracting over 10,000 people.
Also on the Mall that afternoon were members of the BHI. The BHI is a group of African Americans that believe they are direct descendants of ancient Israelites. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have labeled them as a hate group, because of their inflammatory messages about Jewish, Christian, white and LGBTQ people.
On this evening, five BHI members chose to turn their attention towards attendees of the Indigenous Peoples March. In the almost two-hour video posted online by Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan, the BHI can be seen taunting the indigenous activists, calling them savages, insulting their religious beliefs and calling them “Uncle Tomahawk’s.”
At the 11:27 mark, a group of students appear in the video for the first time. The BHI quickly turned their attention away from the indigenous activists and towards the students, some of who were wearing red “Make America Great” hats. The students, from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, were in D.C. to attend the March for Life rally.
The BHI can be heard calling the white students “dirty a** crackers,” “child molesting faggots,” “future school shooters” and threatening to assault them. At one point, the BHI can be heard calling the students “incest babies.” The black students were not spared insults either, as the BHI labeled them “Kanye’s,” later calling them “Coonye ass ni***rs.”
Over the course of an hour, the BHI spared few from their barbs, calling Israeli citizens “imposters” and a Catholic priest they dubbed “Father Hands” a child molester. After an hour and ten minutes, the students had enough and began to sing sports chants to drown out the BHI.
At this point that the now infamous interaction between Nathan Phillips and Nick Sandmann occurred. Phillips, an attendee of the Indigenous Peoples March, happened upon a scene he described as “coming to a boiling point” after he witnessed the BHI spit on one of the students.
Phillips forced his way into the crowd, singing “Raymond Yellow Thunder Song” while beating a drum. Stopping mere inches away from high school junior Nicholas Sandmann, Phillips beat his drum for two minutes while Sandmann stood still, smiling widely. According to Sandmann, he stood still and smiled at Phillips to defuse the situation, because he knew it was being recorded. Moments later, the group of students disbanded.
This is not the first time this has happened. This is not even the first time this has happened this month. On the day of the incident, a spokesperson for Special Counsel Mueller’s office released a statement disputing a BuzzFeed report, which alleged that President Trump directed his former attorney Michael Cohen to make false statements to Congress. Fake news is not limited to liberal news sources: on Monday morning, Fox & Friends erroneously reported the death of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
This is a problem that will not go away anytime soon. Gone are the days where the mainstream media decides the narrative. These days, social media drives the conversation, with little regard to waiting to see how a story develops. Today, it is all about page views.
Rush to judgement is to blame for much of the “fake news” that has diminished the credibility of the media. If the news media wants to survive the social media age, here is to hoping they take a breath before they post.
Video of the event can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/312344885
Comments