That’s a lot of video. When does Mr Phillips come into shot?
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Well, the mystery of “How could this kid be such a fuckwit” is solved. This woman will eventually be named and shamed, and I predict she will continue doubling down on being a fucking idiot.
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At the risk of sounding facetious, the story below was linked from that page, and I was briefly surprised but gratified at the idea that Andrew Eldritch had weighed in on the matter and had been thought worth quoting by an American newspaper.
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About an hour and 12 minutes in.
Elder Phillips says the black men in question “may have been black Israelites, but I’m not sure.” If that is accurate, these may be the folks that were involved:
If so, my respect for him in his decision to step between these two groups to head off violence goes up yet another notch.
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And what is the context you believe this video provides?
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Nazi youth, missing swastika armbands.
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I’m going to give a different story. The white kids didn’t all believe in what the vocal one was saying, they just didn’t speak up. They didn’t want to rock the boat, they knew they had to live with the other kids back at school, maybe they were afraid, maybe not speaking was just easier for them. So in their silence they gave approval, even if they didn’t mean it.
About 1990 I was walking along downtown and the sidewalk was blocked by a crowd. Looking in, two guys were fighting, or rather one was beating the other, the crowd just watching. I was mad that nobody spoke up, madder than that one guy was beating up the other. So I yelled “stop, you’re hurting him” and the beater looked up and looked like he’d come after me, and that didn’t matter, but he turned and went away. That’s how little it took to stop it, that’s how guilty the crowd was, they didn’t speak up, but kept watching.
Society wants people to be quiet, that’s more important than speaking up. So anti-social behaviour happens, and is given permission because nobody speaks up. A car going through a red light is more acceptable than someone yelling at the car for going through the red light.
People have made references to nazi Germany here, but that’s the analog. Not everyone believed, but not enough spoke up. Every time someone didn’t speak up, it made it easier for others to be quiet too.
But think of Rosa Parks. Yes, a bit more planned than legend has it, but the minute she said “no”, she gave other people power to say no too. But they only got the power if they used it. And that launched a bunch of iterations, the bus boycott, the lunch counters, the Freedom Rides, and Freedom Summer. To speak up meant to risk all, but to speak up meant giving others power, and the world changed.
It’s one thing to sit at home and denounce the kids, much harder to speak up in real life. To speak up may mean losing your place in the group, may mean losing much more. One needs to understand that, to give a path for the rest of that “mob” to change, but also to attempt to make it easier for people to speak up in that situation.
This is dynamics of groups, lots of people don’t speak up for “minor” things, so why wouldn’t it be harder in cases like this? This isn’t about giving the kids a pass, it’s about understanding.
It’s much easier to speak up if you’re not part of the group.
In related news, the photo of the lunch counter sit-in is from 1963, and the white man at the left sitting down is John Salter, who just died last week.
Taking video is not the same as speaking up
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Watching informed and clever people arguing with and mocking the Black Israelites was one of the pleasures of living in NYC. Watching a bunch of spoiled little fascist bullies who match the Black Israelites in their delusions and ignorance wouldn’t be much fun at all. If that’s the case, Elder Phillips only gains more of my respect.
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I saw “The Sisters of Mercy” and thought it odd the goth rock band would chime in at this juncture.
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“I think you will find your honor, that in the completely unedited tape, there is a lower percentage of racist taunts occurring. Look how innocent these boys seem when they are completely off-camera.”
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So much of this thread…
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Not just this thread, either. The newscaster misstating MLK’s name is also a seeing some of that… Oh, and then there is the PUA thread, which is seeing people refusing to believe that there is a connection between that and the alt-right.
So many people who just don’t want to let go of their privilege…
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Looks like the Knights of Columbus emblem. They are a lay Catholic club.
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Hopefully these smug little bastards are on their way to having a lifetime of shame that ruins their lives.
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I’m pretty sure their “responsible adults” would have approved this behavior. Just would not let anyone film it.
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It’s interesting that as someone who claims to be interested in ferreting out The Real Truth of What Really Happened, you have only posted links to videos put up by right wing racists.
It’s interesting that you seem to not want to understand that in a confrontation between four African Americans and forty MAGA pro life racists, it doesn’t fucking matter if both sides shouted insults and taunts, because if things continue to escalate, the group of forty poses a clear danger to the group of four, not the other way round.
It’s interesting that you seem to not want to speak of Nathan Phillips by name. I could try to put all these interesting observations about what kind of person you have revealed yourself to be together but life is too short.
We could spend all day tracking down hundreds of different videos of what happened, trying to put together an Unbiased, Authoritative Account of Events. Or you know, we could ask Elder Phillips himself what went down. Which is that he saw that the confrontation between four African American protestors and ten times as many MAGA pro life assholes was turning ugly, and decided to intervene, placing his drum and his song and his body in between the two groups. Which is exactly what the links I posted said.
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And this right here is where this starts to be a whole lot less fun for these children of privilege, who have probably never faced real life consequences for their behavior. Already one parent has started screaming about “fake news.” Others will follow. Which will out them as racist assholes as well. Let the pain begin.
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not worth it.
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