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Nathan Phillips

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The Resume

    (February 22, 1954- )
    Born in Lincoln, Nebraska
    Omaha tribal elder
    Activist for Native American rights and war veterans
    Leads an annual ceremony in their honor at Arlington National Cemetery
    Subject of the award-winning documentary 'Between Earth and Sky' (2013)
    Came under national scrutiny after appearing in a viral video in which he appears to be getting harassed by a group of Covington high schoolers wearing 'Make America Great Again' hats (Jan. 2018)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was accused of misrepresenting his military service record on several occasions (he claimed to have meant 'Vietnam-times veteran' rather than 'Vietnam veteran').
    He was revealed to have a criminal record with charges that included assault and escaping from prison.
    The viral video gave viewers the initial impression that the students deliberately surrounded him during a peaceful protest, when he himself admitted to approaching the students on his own free will.
    When a longer hour-and-a-half long video of the encounter between himself and Sandmann was made public, a number of public figures were forced to apologize and rescind earlier statements condemning the children and portraying him as a victim of harassment.
    The encounter and subsequent backlash led to the death threats and online harassment of 'smirking' student Nick Sandmann and other Covington students, to the point where the school itself had to shut down temporarily.
    He claimed to have heard the students shouting 'build that wall' while he was singing, but viewings of multiple videos of the incident failed to capture it (some have suggested he mistook the Covington school chant for it, however).
    The same day of the encounter, he led a group of fifty protesters gain entrance to the celebration of Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception while chanting and hitting drums. When they were turned away, they banged on the doors after being locked out.
    He claimed to have turned off Nick Sandmann's Today Show interview thirty seconds into watching, expressing his thoughts of it as: 'coached and written up for him, insincerity, lack of responsibility.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He grew up in a foster home.
    He did serve in the Marine Corps Reserve, as a refrigerator technician, for four years, leaving in 1976 as a private without having deployed.
    His wife died of bone marrow cancer in 2014.
    He led several protests at Standing Rock between 2016 and 2017.
    He claimed to have started banging the drum in order to defuse a confrontation between the group of students and a small group of Black Hebrew Israelites who were shouting insults and profanities at the kids.
    He expressed interest in traveling to the Covington School to lead a discussion about cultural understanding.
    In the same interview talking about Nick Sandmann, he acknowledged that they both had received death threats since the encounter, saying: 'I went to go pray about it, and I woke up with this forgiving heart. So I forgive him.'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 15 Votes: 46.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 21 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 54 Votes: 70.37% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 90 Votes: 45.56% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 456 Votes: 58.99% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 140 Votes: 70.71% Annoying