Washington Affirmative Action Opponents Enlisted the Proud Boys for Security
Affirmative action opponents are facing criticism this week after a YouTube video surfaced showing a local Proud Boy apparently providing security for the "No on Referendum 88" campaign. The campaign's willingness to get help from the Proud Boys, a far-right fringe group known for proudly spewing racist taunts online and in street brawls across the country, earned a quick rebuke from the opposing, pro-Affirmative Action campaign.
In the video posted to YouTube in August, local Proud Boy Zachary Staggs appears to sit in the back of a paneled van surrounded by boxes of apparent referendum signatures. Staggs tells the camera about a call he says the Proud Boys received from the campaign to repeal the Washington State Legislature's passage of a new Affirmative Action law (the repeal would happen via a "No" vote on this fall's Referendum 88). According to Staggs, the "No" campaign couldn’t find anyone else to provide security for transmitting referendum signatures to the Secretary of State’s office, so they wanted the Proud Boys to help.
“No one would take the job for doing security for them,” Staggs tells the camera, “so they gave us a call and we went down and did security for them and the signatures got down there safely and securely.”
For those who are understandably confused at this point by all the double negatives involved in the Referendum 88 fight, a quick un-wrinkling:
What this all means is that affirmative action opponents (the "No on Referendum 88" folks) now have the support of Crosscut's conservative columnist Jon Carlson, the Sizzling Hot Pot chain of restaurants (the campaign's largest donor), and the Proud Boys. While the pro-Affirmative Action side (the "Yes on Referendum 88" folks) has the support of the ACLU, the Democratic Party, the NAACP, nearly all major labor groups, and Microsoft.
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/10/15/41688528/washington-affirmative-action-opponents-enlisted-the-proud-boys-for-security
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