By Elijah M. Carson
OwlFeed Journalist

Like other cases around the world, there are always three sides of the story: the victim, the attacker, and the people that weigh in their opinion. In this case, there is no exception as there has been a controversy circling around a video swarming the internet of a caucasian teenage male wearing a MAGA hat, President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hat, smirking at a Native American man.

On Friday, January 18th, at The March for Life rally event in Washington D.C., Native American tribe elder, Nathan Phillips, was pounding on a drum during a pep rally when he saw a group of African Hebrew Israelites, a group of Native Americans viewed as God’s chosen people, were being ridiculed and harassed by a group of boys wearing MAGA hats, where Phillips claims that he heard insults saying such as “Black retards” or “Go back to Africa!”

Since he wanted to keep the peace of the event, Phillips decided to intervene and chose to sing a song of unity between the two groups, where one boy named Nick Sandmann, went up to Phillips and smirked at him, which became the infamous video origin.

In the video, you can see Phillips beating on the drum, while Sandmann condescendingly smirking at him, while other boys wearing MAGA hats are egging on the encounter. Though if you ask Sandmann what happen, this wasn’t correct.

On Wednesday the 23rd, Sandmann went to NBC to do an interview on his side of the story and how most of what Phillips said was incorrect and he started the interview by saying, “We’re a Catholic school. And [racism] is not tolerated. They don’t tolerate racism. And none of my classmates are racist people.” In his story, the Hebrew Israelites were very rude and were verbally attacking them, saying, “I heard them call us ‘incest kids. Bigots.’”

He remembers how they all felt threatened a felt as a group of adults was harassing them and how they wanted to confront them. Then when Phillips came between them, he chose to smile to avoid aggression since he claims that he isn’t racist and he respects his elders. He said, “I wanted the situation to die down. And I just wish he would have walked away,” Then added, “Now I wish I would have walked away.”

Though any interviews haven’t been with the Hebrew Israelites, a group that was talked about in both stories, many other people had weighed their opinions in this story such as the story gains more people’s interest and even more controversy. Such people as President Trump himself as he blames the media, for making Sandmann and his classmates “symbols for Fake Media and how evil it can be.” He believes that they were treated unjustly and unfairly.

Though the argument still lives on, Phillips decided to hold a conference about “cultural appropriation, racism, and the importance of listening to and respecting diverse cultures” and how he even wants to reach out to Sandmann and the other students. Though it is obviously clear that the agreement lives on, it shows that in this argument, there will be no winner.