Indeed. Photojournalist Ryan Vizzions (“No Spiritual Surrender” on Facebook) says a better headline would be:
Native Elder, Nathan Phillips, walks into a crowd of Magats and begins playing the AIM song to their face.
Source with details and video clip:
(Quoted for those who prefer to avoid Facebook):
VIDEO: Nathan Phillips, an Omaha Native pipe carrier steps into a group of Trump supporters to divert attention away from a group of African American protestors as the crowd of MAGA youth were taunting them, according to the eyewitness who filmed this video.In this video, you can see the moment Phillips and his group begin playing their drum, stepping in directly between the group of MAGA youth and the African American protestors to divert the energy away from them and towards him. Phillips, a Vietnam veteran and former director of Native Youth Alliance has previously used his drum and song on both the front lines of the NODAPL movement as well as a music video from Skrillex & Damian Marley’s music video for “Make it Bun Dem”.
I’ve had the honor of standing alongside Phillips multiple times between Standing Rock, Washington DC & New York City. Ironically, this video was recorded by my ex girlfriends friend, who just happened to be in Washington DC and at the incident during the time, not connected to any of the 3 groups. The Indigenous People’s March had ended by the time of this situation.
Accuracy is important when relaying news.
Instead of highlighting the ignorance of these youth, let’s highlight the dignity and courage of these men. Both the African American men, and the native group that came to stand in solidarity with them in the face of hate.
Video: Olive Chauncey
Vizzoins also posted a screengrab of the original uploader’s description of the video. Transcribed from the screengrab:
“Large group of young white teenagers wearing MAGA hats, surrounding 4 Nation of Islam men calling them devil’s… enter Native American peace makers.”
(Vizzoins points out that we do not know if the men holding protest signs in the video are indeed NOI or not).
ETA: while I was writing this post, Vizzoins uploaded another, longer video of the taunting of the protestors by the MAGAists and the intervention of a group of people led by Nathan Phillips.
FULL VIDEO: On camera, you can see the MAGA Youth taunting the group of African American men as they peacefully protest. Nathan Phillips then steps in with drum and song to divert the hate energy away from the men, instead focusing the hate towards himself. This is UNITY!Everyone in the media has it wrong. SHARE THIS.
