Getting Harassed by Confederate Participant • 2012 Feb. 25 • Richmond, Virginia
Channel: Silver Persinger
Date: 2012-03-03

Richmond, Virginia — I went to this event because my friend had asked me if I would film video of him burning a Confederate flag at the event. We were going to meet at noon, after a bit I didn't see him so I checked my phone and saw that he had tweeted and @mentioned me that he had called the flag burning off due to the high winds, 16.5 MPH.

Since I was there I thought I might as well film. I listened to the speakers. The main speaker for the event was R. Michael Givens, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia at the National Reunion of the Sons of Confederate Veterans [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Michael_Givens]. He gave a speech saying that the Confederacy stood for liberty, that the war had been the second American Revolution for liberty. He said economic liberty was the most important liberty and spoke against Lincoln, the Rights of Man, the French Revolution, and social justice.

While he was speaking, I got the idea that I wanted to say something to challenge his point of view. Something appropriate and short because I knew I would not have much time. Then I had to decide when the appropriate time to say it would be. Initially, I thought I would say, "Fuck White Supremacy!" then decided against that because there were children there. What could I say? I contemplated "You're Weird!" but I settled on "You suck!" at the end of the speaker's comments. I waited for the applause to die down some before I made my comment, which I yelled through cupped hands.

After that, this guy [pictured above] came up to me and called me a "dickless piece of shit" repeatedly, and threatened several forms of violence over the course of seven minutes.

Warning: This video contains adult language and threats of violence.

Video of the entire event can be seen here,
vimeo.com/37475734