Over the last few days, there has been a storm of controversy over a video which seemingly shows teenage boys in red MAGA hats mocking a Native American elder. The incident and its interpretation are dominating news headlines, with the confrontation being called a Rorschach test whose different interpretations reveal the division and conflict in America today. To use the Buddha's terminology, we are left with "a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views (MN 72)," which is hard to untangle.
I am not going to reiterate the layers of details that have surfaced over the last few days. Suffice it to say that the interpretation of the event falls into two camps: One argues that the evidence reveals a group of racist white Trump supporters mocking and disrespecting a Native American elder. The other points to the fact that the boys were responding to a hate group that had mocked them with slurs and insults, and argues that the students' irreverent behavior was not intended as racist mockery.
Read Full Article »