The Black Hebrew Israelites group said the confrontation Friday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Covington Catholic High School students and a Native American man was “great” for their cause.
“It’ll get to them,” Ash Yasharahla, who belongs to a congregation of Hebrew Israelites known as I Am Israel (No Division), told the New York Times. “It’ll permeate their minds. As long as the full message is up there, it’s a great thing.”
A group of five Black Hebrew Israelites yelled racist, homophobic, and other derogatory comments to a group of Covington Catholic High School students before a viral encounter between the teenagers and Native American protester Nathan Phillips.
The Black Hebrew Israelites, who believe God’s chosen people are blacks, Hispanics, and Native American people, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a black supremacist group. Its members often act in provocative ways in an effort to get a reaction.
One member of the group present at the Lincoln Memorial Friday said that it happened to “expose” what America has become. “Our God did that to expose what this country is coming to, to expose what we’ve been teaching,” Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan said.
Among the obscenities the Black Hebrew Israelites called the Covington Catholic students in “Make America Great Again” hats and attire were “incest kids,” “faggots,” and “white crackers,” while also claiming that the teenagers were racist.
