More Information Surfaces About MAGA Hat Wearing Student

The video that surfaced of a high school student from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky seemingly mocking and confronting Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribe elder was judged harshly on social media and caused a quick back lash against the youth involved.

The first video that was released shows a group of young men, many of them wearing Make America Great Again hats, in what appears to be a mob surrounding a single native American elder while chanting and jeering. The young man in the center of the video, stands face to face with the elder, not moving with a look of disrespect and intolerance on his face. The elder was chanting and banging a drum during the confrontation.

Once the video went viral, social media blew up with condemnation for the group of young men as racist, hateful and disrespectful of the elder who was there for a Indigenous Peoples March. Social media was quick to descend on the group of young men identifying them, contacting Covington Catholic High School and demanding they be punished.

Today though, a new video has surfaced which is much longer and shows what occurred before and after the confrontation and gives a new perspective of the encounter. Nick Sandman, the young man in the center of the controversy released a statement which explained, from his point of view, what occurred. This statement along with the new video has brought important context into light and opinions of the incident are changing.

Just before the controversial event, there was a group of about 5 men who identify themselves as members of the Hebrew Israelites, a movement that believes some black Americans are the descendants of an ancient Israelite tribe. You can hear the men on the video attacking the group of students from Covington Catholic High School with a barrage of racist, demeaning and disparaging names. In response to the verbal attack, the young men ignore them, and then turn away and begin chanting, what has been identified as a school chant.

It was first reported that the group was chanting "Build the Wall", but it seems now, that this report was incorrect. They were chanting a school pride chant. At about the same time this was occurring, the elder Nathan Phillips begins to cross the area, drumming a chant.

Phillips reported that he was trying to diffuse the situation of the verbal assaults being thrown by the Hebrew Israelites and walked through the group of students. You can see the students in the video, chanting along with the elder.

Now that all this information has come into the light, it can be seen, that these young men, albeit acting immaturely, were not being racist. It was a very deceiving video that showed only a small slice of what occurred. I believe that the only thing that Nick Sandmann is guilty of is having a smug look on his face. The young men are guilty of all acting like a bunch of immature high school kids and being rude but I think that is all.

In this highly charged political climate, we have to be careful not to jump to conclusions about events that we perceive uphold our own beliefs. We have to be careful who we attack in the social media realm. I don't believe this was Nick Sandmann's proudest moment, but I don't think it was enough to attack his family and bombard him with hostility, death threats, and racist ideologies. In retrospect, I believe social media jumped to gun on this one and as the dust clears, there is a 16 year old high school teen, stuck in a viral tornado of hate.