BLM Group, Proud Boys Hold Joint News Conference Refuting 'White Supremacist' Claim
A Salt Lake City chapter of the Proud Boys held a joint news conference with the leader of Black Lives Matter of Northern Utah on Wednesday night.
The Proud Boys, a right-wing group, has recently found itself embroiled in controversy following Tuesday’s presidential debate. After being asked to denounce the group, President Donald Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” at the many ongoing riots going on across the country.
When asked on Wednesday what he meant by “stand back and stand by,” Trump clarified that he doesn’t “know who the Proud Boys are” and was asking them to “let law enforcement do their work.”
During their Wednesday news conference, leaders of the local Proud Boys chapter, speaking on behalf of the entire national organization, fully denounced white supremacy.
“I will go out and say that the #ProudBoys as a whole, I will say this on behalf of the entire national organization, denounce white supremacy.” – Thad, Chief of the Proud Boys Salt Lake Utah Chapter pic.twitter.com/WGlUEx3jeF
— ????? ?????? (@brian_schnee) October 1, 2020
“I will go out and say that the Proud Boys as a whole, I will say this on behalf of the entire national organization, denounce white supremacy,” Thad, the chief of the local chapter, told reporters. Both Thad and Seth, the president of the chapter, declined to share their last names with reporters.
“I don’t care what color your skin is, we’re all Americans and we need to find a way to come together instead of divide,” Seth told KUTV-TV.
“We are in no way, shape or form white supremacists,” Thad added.
The group identifies as “Western chauvinist” which many left-wingers claim is a white supremacist dog-whistle. Thad went on to explain what the group means when they call themselves “Western chauvinists.”
“It means that the West is the best. Western civilization is the best. That’s our opinion,” Thad told KUTV.
“Chauvinism is just patriotism,” Seth pointed out. “Don’t get it wrong with male chauvinism or anything like that.”
Jacarri Kelley, the leader of Black Lives Matter Northern Utah, is partnering with the Proud Boys group on police reform.
“We do need to be able to reach across the aisle and have these tough conversations,” Kelley told KUTV.
Claims that the Proud Boys is a white supremacist group were already being questioned after the group’s international chairman — a person of color — set the record straight in a recent interview.
On Thursday’s episode of his show, prominent conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh pointed out the obvious absurdity.
“If there are people of color and if the international grand pooh-bah is black, then how can they be a white supremacist group?” Limbaugh asked.
Although the accusations of white supremacy seem to be ridiculous, the Proud Boys has long been a controversial organization.
The Wall Street Journal describes them as a far-right group, noting the Anti-Defamation League has found that some among the group’s ranks hold white supremacist and anti-Semitic views.
The organization is known for resorting to violence at protests and riots in much the same way that antifa does, although antifa, as the president pointed on Tuesday, is much more prevalent and widespread.
“In recent months, Proud Boys have fought with people protesting police treatment of Black people in Portland, Ore., and other cities,” The Journal reported.
With that, it is important to note that a DHS report from June confirmed that “opportunists,” including those affiliated with the far-left group antifa, are the ones contributing to the vast majority of the violence that has broken out following the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year.
Following those many violent riots that have devastated cities across the country, the Democrats want a nice little right-wing scapegoat to blame the violence on.
Moreover, leftists thought they could use the Proud Boys as proof that President Trump is racist, despite the fact that Trump has denounced racism and white supremacy on multiple occasions.
Say what you want about the right-wing group, but one thing is certain — the Proud Boys aren’t a white supremacist group and they aren’t responsible for the rampant violence that has engulfed 2020 America.
That blame lies at the feet of the left.
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