I then saw a more extended video that showed the African American group begin taunting the group of boys and then the Native drummer moving between two hostile groups that were chanting and taunting one another. In this, it did not seem like the drummer was aiming for the boy, but that the boy simply didn't move out of the way like others did. At this point the other boys, who had made a move back started moving in on the Native drummer and his companions and mocking the chant he was singing.
There were a number of people in the wrong in this situation, and one of them was me. As far as I can tell, the incident was replete with snap judgments. I believe African Americans assumed that that the young men, wearing MAGA hats, were there to counterprotest the gathering they had planned. The Native drummer assumed something similar and put himself into a spot between the hostile groups. The youth assumed that the Native drummer was challenging him specifically and stood his ground. People online made snap judgments and began doxing the youth and his school. Like nearly everyone involved in this situation, I made a snap judgment based on the initial picture I saw and several articles that popped up soon afterwards.
Even now, I don't believe that I know or will ever know the entire story, but I know that these snap judgments of mine are becoming entirely too common as of late. I feel that there were a lot of ways that this situation could have gone better, but then we would have never heard about it or had these sorts of discussions. I also know that the situation could have been much worse with a much more violent ending.
We need to start examining our snap judgments and make certain that we aren't seeing just what we want to see (or fear to see). It would be nice if we had more help from the media and our politicians in this regard.