Over the weekend, someone posted a video of a young man standing in front of a Native American veteran. The young man was accused of taunting the man while he was drumming, and his classmates who were standing nearby were accused of making disrespectful comments aimed at the Native American. The video blew up on social media. The teens' school even responded to the incident, stating the teens would be disciplined up to and including expulsion.
On Monday morning, however, when additional information and longer portions of video emerged, news anchors admonished viewers that jumping to conclusions can be harmful in so many ways.
The teen at the center of attention shared his version of what happened. CNN's Jake Tapper obtained a statement from Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School, who said he is the student in the video. Sandmann said he was trying to diffuse a tense situation and denied insinuations that anyone in the crowd was acting out of racism or hatred.
"I was not intentionally making faces at the protester. I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation," said Sandmann. "I am a faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up to the ideals my faith teaches me - to remain respectful of others and to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence."
"I am mortified that so many people have come to believe something that did not happen - that students from my school were chanting or acting in a racist fashion toward African-Americans or Native Americans. I did not do that, do not have hateful feelings in my heart and did not witness any of my classmates doing that.
"I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to diffuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict. I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand," Sandmann said.
"I never felt like I was blocking the Native American protester. He did not make any attempt to go around me. It was clear to me that he had singled me out for a confrontation, although I am not sure why," he added.
An ancient proverb says it is foolish to answer a matter before you hear it.
Millions of people looked at the video and immediately jumped to conclusions without having context or perspective. As a result, a young man was accused of taunting a Native American veteran, being racist and numerous other things. Additionally, a young man who attends the same school was falsely identified as being present. His family was accused of being racists, and they received threats throughout the weekend.
Have we become a culture that responds to what we think we see? Or have we always been people who respond this way? Are we looking for any excuse to be outraged?
Just one day after this video was posted, another video started making the rounds. This one showed a barefoot 2-year-old girl with her hands held high in the air after getting out of a car stopped by police. Officers were in the midst of arresting the little girl's father, who was a suspect. In the video, someone can be heard saying, "She's trying to get out. Oh, my God! She's trying to get out, but she can't because she's little," and "Ooh, she's holding her hands up." Looking at the video and seeing officers with their guns pointed at the car, many assumed the guns were pointed at the little girl.
However, the arresting officer had his bodycam rolling. His footage shows the officers stop the vehicle and tell the suspected armed adults to step out of the truck. After the adults were out of the truck, the child unexpectedly climbed out and imitated her parents by walking toward the officers with her hands raised. An officer can be heard comforting the child, saying, "You're OK, come over here sweetie, you're OK," and "Sweetie, put your hands down, you're fine."
Ultimately, two men were arrested, and their mother was allowed to take care of the children.
These are just two instances out of thousands of videos where people are put in a position to draw conclusions about what really happened. Is it possible that we are being baited?
Relationship expert Hal Runkel talks about the importance of "the pause," which allows people time to take in what they are seeing, obtain more information and then make a decision about the best way to respond.
This seems like a great teachable moment for us all. Many allowed their time, emotional energy and bandwidth to be hijacked by a situation that may or may not have been what it seemed to be. When people live on the edge with short fuses and expect to be offended, people can pretty much be assured that they will be. The question is: Is this behavior helpful to us, or is it harmful?
Julie Baumgardner is president and CEO of family advocacy nonprofit First Things First. Email her at julieb@firstthings.org.