by The Cowl Editor on January 24, 2019
National and Global News
by Kellie Johnson ’22
News Staff
On Friday, January 18, just outside the Lincoln Memorial, a standoff between a high school boy from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky and a Native American elder went viral.
The video is sparking reactions from the rest of the country.
The standoff began when a group of high school boys and members from a religious group called the Hebrew Israelites allegedly taunted each other with remarks about President Trump’s infamous wall, which has been especially relevant to American lives today due to its role in the recent government shutdown.
However, despite multiple witnesses claiming the students were chanting “build a wall,” this is not found in any of the videos from the incident.
The standoff officially started when Nathan Phillips, 64, began to sing and play a prayer song in between the two groups. The students around the elderly man then supposedly began to mock him.
The viral video broadcasted on many news stations is of the man standing face to face with a boy who appears to be smirking.
Some people are perceiving his smirk as arrogance, while others are excusing the boy by saying he was just nervous.
The boy is now being called racist by many people on social media, while others are attributing his reaction to the taunting. As always, the country is divided on its opinion of what really happened that day.
The young man publically apologized and is receiving great backlash from his school and the media.
While not being entirely sure of the intentions of the video, it points out the effects of social media, as it is proof that actions have consequences, and the young man in the video is facing them.