An unseasoned collection of white nationalists who apparently are fed up with all this “inclusion and diversity” nonsense had some things to get off their chest this weekend during a book event in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post reports that card-carrying members of the MAGA mafia descended upon bookstore Politics and Prose to disrupt a discussion on the newly released Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland, written by Vanderbilt University professor Jonathan M. Metzl.
About 10 white protesters walked into Politics and Prose shortly after Metzl began his talk at 3:30 p.m., videos posted on Twitter show. They gathered in front of Metzl, and an unidentified man with an electric megaphone declared, “You would have the white working class trade their homeland for handouts.”Amid the booing, the man added, “But we, as nationalists and identitarians, can offer the workers of this country a homeland, their birthright, in addition to health care, good jobs and so forth.” The booing got louder. He then started the chant of “This land is our land,” and the men walked back out.
Here’s some exclusive footage of the individuals in question embarrassing themselves:
The incident only lasted a couple of minutes before Jake and his Caucasian cronies took their ball and went home. Thankfully, no one was injured save some bigoted pride and egos.
“This was in a very friendly environment at Politics and Prose,” Metzl said on MSNBC’s AM Joy. “It was ironically at the moment in the talk where I was making the claim that America is better when we’re at the most generous, the strongest, the most inclusive. I see this very well-organized chain of white men and women. […] They were very well orchestrated.”
WAMU reports that these spectacles are becoming more and more become commonplace at the revered bookstore.
It’s not the first time that Politics and Prose has found itself the target of white nationalists. The venerable bookstore was on the receiving end of a number of threats over the Pizzagate hoax that drew a gunman to Comet Ping Pong, which is located just down the block (“Obviously Comet Ping Pong was at the center of all of this but really most of the businesses in this block have been affected one way or the other,” Politics and Prose’s marketing director told DCist at the time).Meanwhile, the bookstore has contended with other disruptions to scheduled author talks. Protesters shouted Janet Napolitano down last month. And that experience led owners Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine to reconsider how they handled an appearance by author Max Blumenthal after activists campaigned against it on social media.
“The scary part,” Metzl said on MSNBC, “was initially when we thought, ‘Are they armed?’”
Sadly that is a real concern in this day and age, but thankfully this incident didn’t conclude with unnecessary violence.
“It was very symbolic for me,” Metzl told the Washington Post. “In case anybody’s wondering what’s happening right now, they’re illustrating my point.”
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