Is Black History Month really Black History Month if there’s no counter-demonstration of the sorts? Well, over the weekend, over a dozen people dressed in Nazi symbols marched down near the Capitol building in Nashville on the heels of a Black Lives Matter event.
Metro Nashville Police say they were monitoring “some type of demonstration” that occurred Saturday. That demonstration consisted of a group of men dressed in red and black, waving swastika flags in the air.
Tennessee Rep. Justine Jones took to social media, explaining the group were members of the Blood Tribe—a white supremacist group that exalts Adolf Hitler as their god, per the Anti-Defamation League. In Jones’ video, he said the group were chanting “deporting every Mexican” along with other racist taunts. Jones told CNN he just stepped outside an event honoring a Divine Nine sorority for Black History Month when he caught the scene.
“Immediately the reaction of myself and [the] chief of staff was to try and rush to the parking garage and hide, but then we remembered the way to write wrongs is not to hide but to shine the light of truth upon them. So we recorded them to bear witness to what was going on here,” Jones said.
Gov. Bill Lee responded to the incident in a statement condemning Nazism and antisemitism, adding that Tennessee “remains unwavering in their support for Israel.”
Lt. Governor Randy McNally followed up with his own response, calling the Blood Tribe members “thugs” who don’t represent Tennessee’s values and aren’t welcome there.
The police said the group vacated the premises after a “challenge” (a stand-off?) but arrived there earlier inside a U-Haul truck. Don’t that sound familiar?
Two years ago, a U-Haul truck pulled up outside an area where an LGBT event was being held. Inside the truck were 31 members of the Patriot Front who police said were preparing to disrupt the Pride Parade. Not to mention, this group of black-and-red wearing hooligans have been spawning around the country like Pokémon. They popped up in Orlando, Florida, back in September and again on a college campus in Wisconsin in January.
The ordeal is an ugly reminder during Black History Month that Black people are still fighting for freedom and equity under the iron fist of racism and hate. And there are still groups in the U.S. who exercise their First Amendment rights assemble just to tout white supremacist garbage.