The day before the 15-year anniversary of 9/11, 16-20 alt-right Trump supporters brought racism and hate speech to the top of Stone Mountain. The video below contains graphic and racist language but is important to see. UPDATE: Thanks to several readers, including a group called the Atlanta Antifascists, at least one of these males has been identified as a known white nationalist named Patrick Sharp. Another has been identified as Casey Jordan Cooper (as of March 2017).
I began my hike up the mountain on the afternoon of Saturday, September 10, with the usual wonderment of the perpetually fascinated. Signs of encroaching autumn rushed my senses and the 15-year anniversary of 9/11 weighed on my mind. A large banner decrying veterans lost to PTSD hung between two trees at the base of the walk-up trail. Shiny magenta clusters of beautyberry held up the blue autumn sky and Monarch butterflies fed on yellow daisies as the Yellow Daisy Festival went on elsewhere in the park. In a half hour I would be heckled and taunted and called a “Christ killer,” a “Jew,” and a “cunt” by a pack of sixteen twenty-something "alt-right" white males, two smoking cigars, one swilling beer (it’s not allowed) and donning a Confederate flag as a cape for show.
Midway up the mountain I stopped to talk with a lovely Pakistani family that lives in Johns Creek, GA and their friends visiting from Pakistan. Nadeem, an ENT, playfully climbed a tree and later shared that in his holy book, the Quran, mountains were created by Allah to keep the Earth from shaking. I shared my 9/11 story with them of how I walked across the Manhattan Bridge that day, the part where cars drive, with thousands of people, some covered in soot. Wearing all black, I had not come prepared for the 91-degree heat that afternoon and was so grateful for the bottle of water and popcorn they shared.
I rounded the top of the mountain and took in a heartwarming scene of a Mexican man sitting with his two daughters taking in the view of Atlanta, and they, too, graciously posed for photos, though one of the girls was tired. I then walked over to one of the geodetic markers at the very center of the mountain, where I made small talk with a Korean War vet in his 80s named Arden Rowley. One look at his hat, and I thanked him for his service and asked him to remind me why we were in Korea then in the first place. Even if I might know something (or think I know), I usually want to hear someone else’s explanation. America was protecting South Korea and fighting Communism and, indirectly, Russia and China. He took out his cell phone and pulled up a YouTube video showing a satellite image of South Korea all lit up and North Korea in darkness. But the sun made it too bright to see it, and I told him I'd go home and Google it.
I parted ways with Arden Rowley around the same time the alt-right troublemakers appeared on the mountain. They wanted to be noticed in their Trump T-shirts with their stinky cigar smoke and the Confederate flag, as if their theatrics were designed to recall a page out of the KKK's old book of taking their white supremacy to the top of this very mountain.
WARNING: The video you are about watch contains graphic and racist language and scenes. You won’t be subjected to the vulgar worst of what I heard that afternoon, thanks to the wind, but you should watch this to familiarize yourself with the dangerous new younger generation of racist “alt-Republican” Trump supporters we've been hearing so much about during this election. If you recognize any of these boys, please let me know. UPDATE: Thanks to several readers, including a group called the Atlanta Antifascists, at least one of these males has been identified as a known white nationalist named Patrick Sharp.
“Why are you wearing a Confederate flag?” I asked.
“Dixie till I die!” he sang out.
“Even if it’s offensive to many people?” I questioned.
That was enough to light their powder keg, to ignite their political publicity stunt. Before they began chanting “alt-right! alt-right! alt right!” I was told to go back to where I came from, called a cunt, and every anti-Semitic cliché in the book. One even said "look at that nose."
Arden Rowley walked over to the guy wearing the Confederate flag, and even they thanked him for his service, too. But Mr. Rowley actually had to ask them what kind of political party they were, as he’d never heard of the alt-right. It was so disheartening seeing this POW being taken in by them, as one of them pointed to me as an example of “the work” that’s still left to do, as Mr. Rowley squeezed one of the boy’s shoulders as an attaboy.
“No one’s buying what you’re selling anymore!” one of them shouted with a tone of na-na, na-na, boo-boo, stick your head in doo-doo. “It’s 2016. No one cares if you call me a racist anymore.”
You can see a little boy walk by in the video. And the Mexican and Pakistani families I’d just met, and so many other innocent passersby, were witnessing and hearing this obscene spectacle, too. One or two supporters cheered them on shouting "First amendment!"
“You guys are an embarrassment,” I said.
“To what…to what…to you?”
“To humanity,” I said, “You’re perpetuating hate and violence.”
Their "leader," the one with the short dark hair, muttered something about me being a “Christ killer.”
“I asked you why you were wearing the flag, and you’re trying to incite me.”
“Wah, wah, wah,” one of them heckled.
“Are you a racist club? What kind of racist club are you?” I asked, and repeated, “What kind of racist club are you?”
The leader actually mumbled something about being “the chosen club.”
I later learned from a former APD detective that I should have just called 911 as soon as trouble began, but at that moment, shaken as I was to be this abused, I simply kept my camera pointed at them from a safe distance and yelled over to them, “I’ll be sure to report your racist activities!” I did call the park police to report it later that day for the record.
Then they began chanting “safe space! safe space! safe space!” like a brainwashed cheerleading squad trained for such choreographed antics at a Trump rally. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, one of them says to me, “You’re the only one getting your panties in a wad.”
“She might not be wearing any panties. Jews don’t wear panties,” another taunted.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, one of them says to me, “You’re the only one getting your panties in a wad.”
“She might not be wearing any panties. Jews don’t wear panties,” another taunted.
Yikes, misogyny AND anti-Semitism. Who preps these louts? I told them they were disgusting cowards multiple times as they made to leave and walked towards the concession building. All they could muster was a feeble “is that what Hillary taught you?”
I thought they were gone, but maybe a half hour later they came barreling down the mountain as I talked with one of the regulars at the mountain, Tony “Guitar Man” Taylor, about what had happened.
“There they are, Tony!” I said.
Tony confronted them and demanded they apologize to me, but of course they didn’t. They kept walking, and you could tell they didn’t want to mess with Tony—and just look at guys like this. Weak all by themselves but gaining perilous momentum to commit god knows what as a gang.
Here are some of Tony's thoughts about racism from August 7, 2015:
It's been almost two months since this happened, but it still disturbs me deeply—and it should greatly trouble you, too, that Donald Trump and his ilk inspire such odious and divisive behavior. The very people he riled up will still walk among us with such hate in their hearts long after the election and will continue to pose a danger to democracy and humanity. To these alt-right bigots I say, I am all for free speech and defend your right to say it—and my right to speak out against reprehensible people like you—but I do not defend what you say or find it fair or just. Free speech is a privilege as much as it is a right. When you infringe upon people's pursuits of happiness and safety with your hate speech—trying to stoke fear the day before the anniversary of 9/11, as you shout "Build the wall!" within earshot of Mexicans at a public park no less—you just prove yourselves to be huge un-American jerks.
