Sunday’s “Justice-For-Trayvon” marchheld by the New Black Panther Party was attended by a woman holding asign reading: “Racist and Proud.” Several media outlets incorrectly identified the woman as a “George Zimmerman supporter,” and the story took off, providing the left with supposed evidence of racism among those who believe Zimmerman was not guilty. However, an interview with Breitbart News at the Houston rally itself proved that she was an anti-Zimmerman demonstrator attempting to use sarcasm to prove her point.
The HoustonChronicle‘s Jayme Fraser wrote of the woman pictured above: “At one point, Renee Vaughan of Austin mocked protesters by chanting, “We’re racist. We’re proud. We’re better ’causewe’re white.” The language of the article was somewhat clumsy, allowing other media outlets to jump to the wrong conclusion.
The New York Daily News‘ Philip Caulfield used the following caption for the above photo, from the Associated Press: “A George Zimmerman supporter holds a sign during acounter-demonstration of activist Quanell X’s group march in the RiverOaks community in Houston on Sunday.” He also wrote: “One woman in the Zimmerman group held a sign that said, ‘We’re racist & proud,'” distorting the Chronicle story significantly.
The UK Daily Mail repeated the error, reporting that the sign was held by members of the pro-Zimmerman group in Houston, portraying it as a form of racist backlash against the New Black Panther Party march.
Democratic strategist Tara Dowdell then took to Fox News’ Hannityto repeat the false accusation, using the “racist and proud” sign story to push back against video evidence of intolerance at pro-Trayvon Martin rallies.
Well, Sean, do some people show up at protests with their own agenda? Absolutely. That happens all the time. There was a pro-Zimmerman rally in Texas where a woman showed up with a sign that said “Racist and Proud.” And that was in the newspaper today. So certainly there are people who show up who behave badly at protests, and that’s not something you can really control for.
I was present in Houston and personally saw the woman holding thesign. She was attending the event with a fellow anti-Zimmerman demonstrator who was wearing a hoodie. I interviewed her and took this footage:
Breitbart News: What does your sign mean?
Woman: This sign means that there are people here who are racist and apparently think that’s OK. I’m not one of them. I’m being sarcastic.
Breitbart News: OK.
Fellow anti-Zimmerman Protestor: Yo. What she said.
Not only was the woman at the event to support the New Black Panther/Trayvon Martin march, but she is also, according to Gateway Pundit and others, a very involved left-of-center activist from Austin, Texas.
Gateway Pundit concludes she was a “leftist plant” who intended to trick or otherwise deceive the media. As the interview reveals, however, she was quite honest andopen about her intentions and what her sign meant. She also located herself quite clearly on the Trayvon Martin/NewBlack Panther Party-supporting side of the demonstration (this video shows the two sides were clearly separated and distinguished from each other).
That would be hard to missfor any media who were actually present, or who read the Chronicle story carefully enough to note that the woman was with the anti-Zimmerman protest. Clearly, the left’s desire to further theGeorge Zimmerman racism narrative trumps the principles of accuracy and journalistic integrity.
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