New video footage is disproving claims made by mainstream media outlets that a Catholic schoolboy was being blatantly racist by mocking and blocking the path of a Native American Elder at this weekend’s Indigenous People’s March.
A video on Twitter of a Covington Catholic School student named Nick Sandmann and his classmates standing in front of and around a Native American Elder named Nathan Phillips went viral over the weekend leading many people and media outlets to call Sandmann and his classmates racists and bigots. In an interview with Phillips, he claimed that the students were also chanting “build that wall," CBN News reports.
Covington Catholic High School also released a statement apologizing for their student’s actions and promised to conduct an investigation, ABC News reports.
Since the video’s release on Saturday, a full-length video was posted to Twitter by the Polish Patriot which has revealed that Sandmann had not actually engaged in a confrontation with Phillips, but Phillips had actually approached him. Additional videos also revealed that there was another protest group present during this confrontation called the Black Hebrews who were seen provoking the group of Native American calling them “dumb a** n*****s” and “demons” as well as calling the Covington Catholic school students, many of them in “Make America Great Again” hats, "bigots" and "racists."
This unedited video (with the original sound) is indisputable proof that the Native American man approached the Catholic school kids pic.twitter.com/cFi0qRYDg2
— PolishPatriot™️ (@PolishPatriotTM) January 20, 2019
In a statement to CNN, Sandmann said he was instructed to arrive at the Lincoln Memorial at 5:30 pm to meet up with the rest of his classmates so they could board their bus and head home to Kentucky. When they arrived, however, the Black Hebrews, were already there provoking the Native Americans. He said, “When we arrived, we noticed four African American protestors who were also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I am not sure what they were protesting, and I did not interact with them. I did hear them direct derogatory insults at our school group.”
He continued, “The protestors said hateful things. They called us ‘racists,’ ‘bigots,’ ‘white crackers,’ ‘faggots,’ and ‘incest kids.’ They also taunted an African American student from my school by telling him that we would ‘harvest his organs.’”
In an interview with CNN, Phillips claimed that Sandmann “put himself in front of me and wouldn’t move.” Full-length video footage of the incident disproves this statement and actually shows Phillips walking up to Sandmann instead. In the video, Phillips can be seen walking through a crowd of people while playing his drum and then walk right up to Sandmann and his classmates who were trying to block out hateful statements being yelled at them by the Black Hebrews by yelling school spirit chants.
Sandmann told CNN, “After a few minutes of chanting, the Native American protestors, who I hadn't previously noticed, approached our group. The Native American protestors had drums and were accompanied by at least one person with a camera.”
He continued, “The protestor everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him. I did not see anyone try to block his path. He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face.”
The Kentucky school boy noted he did not interact with Phillips in any way, noting that he was “startled and confused as to why he had approached me.”
“We had already been yelled at by another group of protestors, and when the second group approached I was worried that a situation was getting out of control where adults were attempting to provoke teenagers,” he added.
As to his demeanor, while standing in front of Phillips, Sandmann said he felt that by smiling and standing still he would calm the situation and prevent it from turning into a physical altercation.
He said, “I was not intentionally making faces at the protestor. I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation.”
Video footage of the Black Hebrews can be seen here. Disclaimer: the video does contain vulgar language.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Annie Bolin
