Last Friday, January 18, a confrontation between a young Trump supporter and a Native American elder took place in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.. A YouTube video of the interaction shows three separate groups which initially were attempting to rally in front of the monument. The Omaha Native American Tribe, the Black Israelites and a group of Catholic high school students from Kentucky were present. While the exact reason for the dispute between the three groups remains unclear, the behavior of each seems to represent the struggle of political tribalism the U.S. faces and how mainstream media reports on political incidents.
“The fact of the matter was that there were numerous students involved and that they were supporters of the current president, but to me the interpretation that I took away from the video and other videos that were posted that were more than an hour in length, that kind of put more context into the situation. I found that the actions that were taken weren’t intended to be harmful, though in the context of these shorter videos that were posted and reposted by mainstream news organizations, it was taken to a point that these students looked like they were doing something harmful and at the end of the day they weren’t. What they were doing wasn’t necessarily what should’ve been done, but at the end of the day they didn’t actually hurt anybody. The threats that these students are receiving are taken far out of context and it’s because of the spread of this media that has only taken a snapshot into the full realm of what actually happened.” - Sadia Moumita, junior
Amira McKee • Feb 5, 2019 at 9:55 am
This story was really interesting to read. I heard about this incident but wasn’t able to form an opinion because there was so little context. I think this shows how crucial context is when passing judgment.
Amira McKee • Feb 5, 2019 at 9:47 am
This story was really interesting to read. I heard about this incident but wasn’t able to take an opinion as there was very little context. It is interesting to see how crucial it is to provide context to a situation before passing judgment.