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A poorly-attended White Lives Matter protest took place over the weekend. On Sunday, about 20 “proud Texans” armed with Confederate flags and assault rifles demonstrated outside the NAACP’s Houston headquarters in protest of the “attack and killings of white police officers.” Protesters say they specifically picked the NAACP Houston HQ located in the city’s Third Ward because of the civil rights organization’s failure to denounce Black Lives Matter.
“We came out here to protest against the NAACP and their failure in speaking out against the atrocities that organizations like Black Lives Matter and other pro-black organizations have caused the attack and killing of white police officers, the burning down of cities and things of that nature,” White Lives Matter member Ken Reed said on Sunday while sporting a Donald Trump ’16 hat. “If they’re going to be a civil rights organization and defend their people, they also need to hold their people accountable.”
While the NAACP was formed in 1909 to fight for equal civil and political rights for black people, White Lives Matter member Scott Lacy flatout called the organization racist. “We came here because the NAACP headquarters is here and that’s one of the most racist, supposedly, civil rights groups in America,” Lacy told KPRC-TV.
Black residents were stunned by the group’s Confederate flags and assault rifles. “The Confederate flag throws me off,” said local resident Quintina Richardson. “You’re saying Black Lives Matter is a racist organization, but when you’re throwing the Confederate flag up and saying White Lives Matter, are you saying you’re racist?” Reed countered that the Confederate flag was a symbol of Southern heritage and not racism, saying, “We’re proud to be Southern. It has all to do about heritage, nothing to do with hate.”
Protesters also held up signs, including one that read “14 Words.” According to the Anti-Defamation league, “14 Words” refers to the white supremacy slogan coined by white supremacist David Lane.
“14 Words” is a reference to the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The slogan was coined by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group known as The Order (Lane died in prison in 2007). The term reflects the primary white supremacist worldview in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged “rising tide of color” purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews.
Because of its widespread popularity, white supremacists reference this slogan constantly, in its full form as well as in abbreviated versions such as “14 Words,” “Fourteen Words,” or simply the number “14.”
By Sunday afternoon, the White Lives Matter protest was shut down by police officers. Black and white counter-protesters later held hands and prayed at a nearby church.
(via Click2Houston, Chron)