Some of you may have based your opinion on articles or on youtube videos that merely provided commentary, but others of us watched the short and long versions of the videos - without commentary - of the things that actually happened. And no matter who else was misbehaving, the fact remains that the response to a native with a drum was to (1) mock his chant, (2) make "tomahawk chop" motions at the native, (3) all while mocking and surrounding him.
Now, if someone gets in your face and you are reasonably in fear for your safety, you may generally engage in physical self-defense (provided you can't just walk away). That's reasonable.
What isn't reasonable is racist mockery, whether or not you are reasonably in fear for your safety. In fact, if you really do fear for your safety, racist mockery is probably about the dumbest thing you could do.
Nothing about the source of any of this and nothing about any other parties either at the scene or commenting on it doing wrong changes the fact that in the long videos, the kids were also one of the parties doing something wrong. "A native walked up to me and chanted at me" is not a justification for "therefore, I'm going to make racist mockery of him, hah-HAH!" Saying that is doing no more than arguing that one perceived slight deserves an even bigger racial slight. And as mommy dearest must've told you folks, two wrongs don't make a right.
Sorry if anyone who likes defending racist mockery is bothered by this, and sorry if we really are at a point in the country where one ideology seems hell-bent on denying and deflecting from every particular instance of racism. Or wait. Not sorry. :shrug:
Not that a sober analysis will stop people from running their faux victory laps, and trying to use this as part of their more generalized dishonest attack on all allegedly "liberal leaning media"