Trump supporters' rally in Washington

Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty

The racist, violent social media videos showing a far-right group vandalizing Black churches during a protest in Washington, D.C., against the presidential election results evoked imagery of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) burning crosses, one of the churches’ pastors said.

The Proud Boys were in the nation’s capital to support the president during the day, but when night fell they turned violent. Clad in military apparel along with bulletproof vests, Proud Boys members skulked the streets of the District of Columbia before coming upon the Asbury United Methodist Church and the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church — both historically Black churches in Northwest Washington.

Not only did the Proud Boys violently rip pro-Black Lives Matter signage off of the Asbury United Methodist Church, but they also lit it on fire in a ceremony likened to one of the KKK‘s signature intimidation tactics historically used against Black people.

Asbury United Methodist Church’s lead pastor said it reminded her of what the Klan used to do.

“It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames,” the Rev. Ianther M. Mills sad in part of a statement tweeted out by Religion News Service reporter Jack Jenkins. “For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings.”

Police in D.C. said the acts of apparent racial intimidation were being investigated, according to the Washington Post.

The Proud Boys have been an increasingly racially and politically divisive collective designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They were the same group who rose to infamy during the so-called “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that included Nazis who Donald Trump referred to as “good people.”

The president would go on to parrot that sentiment a few years later during a nationally televised debate against Joe Biden in September. After refusing to condemn white supremacists, Trump had some kind words of encouragement for the Proud Boys.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!” Trump said unabashedly. “But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.”

Kamala Harris reacted in part to Trump’s words by calling it “dog-whistling through a bullhorn.”

The Proud Boys apparently heard Trump’s message loud and clear, prompting them to celebrate on their online platforms in a renewed commitment to their president; a commitment that is culminating in apparent hate crimes being committed in the name of baseless claims of election fraud.

This is America.

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