^ My opinion after the interview

The kid doesn't owe anyone an apology nationally
he doesn't owe an apology to anyone that misrepresented the events of that day
He's not obligated to fix a screwup he didn't create
He doesn't have to take blame for a situation being misrepresented where he was mistreated and threatened

This should have been a local non-event event.
I've been to plenty of protests/walks/gatherings and clashes happen all the time worse than this. We all go home life goes on, kids lives are not attacked and uprooted

Anything they have done in their personal lives that gets dug up doesn't matter

The story is what the media did. The story is what those pretending to give a shit about real indigenous issues did while shitting on kids that did not do what they were accused of

I give zero fucks if they chanted about Trump or walls. Good for them. It's their right to do. This is America

This was a non violent issue in a scenario that not only has these types of issues often but objectively worse and everyone goes home

If people want to care about indigenous issues get involved in protection of women and children from rape, assault, abduction, sex trafficking, and murder

and a personal fight I've had for many years with my own people and has caused great personal conflict. Stick to the facts. Focus on the issues. Stop with the leave the country bullshit.

Fight poverty in Indian country through the legal and political system. Raise awareness through positivity and inspiration

Phillips (my friend and will be till the end) owes an apology. He will probably not give it but I'm sorry for how the kids were treated.

----

As someone that has pushed against mislabeling Fake News by the right and "enemy of the people" talk by the divisive President

this doesn't help. It began as fake news and it ended as fake news. Even after everything has come out it's still be misrepresented, shifted to other things to justify the initial reaction and carry it on

It's no different than the fake news from the right that is meant to drum up hate based on something that isn't represented fairly and factually

The media not only owes apologies and public self reflection, they not only owe better journalism, real news, facts, this should cost jobs.

"Oh well we will get it better next time" no you won't you are still doing it. People love the fire culture over bullshit, fire people are real shit that is worsening the country

This post was edited by Beowulf on Jan 23 2019 10:13am

why were you so quick to be hostile at the kids initially? media influence or personal bias since you've met Phillips?

does anyone have a link to the original twitter fake context that started this?

if it was "group of teens harass man at Indian event" i can understand outrage, even just from a short clip. But if it was "teens mock indian man at walk for life event" then no one should have gotten as mad as they got in the early stage.

basically u can pre-blame whoever is the counter protester (and generally be safe) and take blame from those with a legit reason to be at the event. so if the context was right wing event its the lefty's fault, and vice versa. if you're getting mad with how people deal with protesters to their event tho you'll be proven wrong more often.

I called the one a smug punk and the others disrespectful. That's as far as I went nothing has changed that opinion. Never called them racist and never condoned any mistreatment against them in fact I spoke against it even before it got as big as it did

My opinion on the local incident that should have never went national hasn't changed

Children should be taught to respect and extend a hand in a scenario like this. They should be properly chaperoned at protests for this very reason

Adults should respect personal space and be able to represent a situation accurately

We are way past the event itself which was minor and I never represented it otherwise or judged the kids more than that.

Even if these kids were chanting politically divisive things and even if they were disrespectful and even if they had clashed in a way where it wasn't Phillips walking up to them it was non violent and not national news worthy

Protests get heated I've seen a lot of it. This was mild and not rare in general. Everyone should have went home.

Beowulf: if you team colors are black you can't do the same thing as if your team wears blue, so clearly Covington is a bunch of racists

Beowulf, also: all i did was call them punks (i totally didnt participate in the pointless mud slinging at children that followed in the lack of mea culpa "ok we were wrong but they're still bad people")

i guess even the racist label isn't immune to indian giving, at least you took it back tho.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jan 23 2019 10:31am

I'll add a specific example of where the natives could have improved at the time

I've been to these and been a part of the interactions. The man that accompanies Phillips that starts getting vocally more aggressive

doing it wrong, passionate you see those maga hats I get it, it's frustrating as a brown man

but that's not what you do or what I've done in similar situations. You offer your hand. You laugh you keep the peace

You meet people you take out the disconnect of the internet and political tribalism.

Shake their hands, set the scene, these kids didn't fully understand what was going on or how to react so lead.

The world could have used pictures of white maga kids hugging natives. It was possible and should have happened. Something not only the maga people should learn but also my own

beowulf hates women and kids now it seems. sheesh what a real actual example of ‘toxic masculinity’

I don't think the child should be the one required to initiate a handshake if some boomer walks up to him banging a drum and staring him in the face.

why were the injuns at the Walk for Life event again?

oh that's right they showed up with drums and solemn faces to counter protest looking for this exact type of engagement. Phillips walked up to them and started the entire thing, there's video of this even uncut for fucks sake.

yep and he turns around and lies about it to multiple national television sources in order to try to attack a group of children. The guy is trash.