Issue and Opponent: On May 26, 2007, In Knoxville, Tennessee, a group called About Black Crime(ABC), aided by the Vanguard News Network founder Alex Linder, staged a demonstration called “Rally Against Genocide” to bring attention to the assault, murder, and carjacking of a white couple by a group of black assailants. The white supremacist groups claimed that this crime was racially motivated and that social justice and racial equality had poisoned the media and the public’s judgment against protecting white people from hate crimes. Reports vary, with an estimated 30 nationalists attending the demonstration. There are reports of a man wearing a swastika shirt, signs blazoned with “Diversity = White Death”, and “Murdered by M—, Covered up by Jews”. Their opponent, Anti Racist Action and the Coup Cluts Clowns wanted to undercut the influence of the neo-Nazi group ABC, and make their core cause, classifying black-on-white crime as genocide, seem more ridiculous to the public. Dilemma Action: The dilemma action was formed as a way to cleverly respond to white supremacist demonstrations, and create an easily accessible form of community solidarity against neo-Nazi causes. A group calling themselves the “Coup Clutz Clowns’ ‘ put themselves in opposition to a KKK rally by dressing up in clownish outfits and satirizing the neo-Nazis. Every time the protesters would cry “White Power!,” their clown counterparts would fake confusion, replying with “White Flour!” while throwing some in the air, “White Flowers!” while throwing some in the air as well, and, perhaps most insulting to the protester’s strong sense of masculinity, “Wife Power!.”
The lose-lose of this demonstration is that either they respond violently to a group of clowns mocking them, making them appear to overreact, and seem silly, or, do nothing, and a posse of clowns is allowed to continuously publicly mock the white supremacist group, calling people’s attention away from their cause and subverting their serious image, making them look silly too. When they fail to respond, their portrayed image as strong soldiers of the white race are destroyed, and they lose the power of the media coverage and fail to legitimize their views. The dilemma action used was satirical imitation, humorous skits, and assemblies of protest.
Outcomes: The outcome of this campaign was the spread of awareness of peaceful and effective counter-protesting methods. Media coverage of this event was very favorable, with many highlighting the humorous spirit of the protest, one even noting that the police were happily smiling at the counter-protesting clowns. Neo-Nazi organizer Alex Linder was arrested for a slew of charges including assault on an officer, resulting in the only arrest of the demonstration. This dilemma action was part of a larger movement of counter-protesting neo-nazi groups. The tactic of “clowning” is quite commonly used, in 2003 the tactic was popularized by the “Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army”, who had an organized team of 150 trained clowns in Edinburgh who used non-violent humor to combat police brutality, in Olympia, Washington in 2005 clowning tactics were used to counterprotest neo-Nazi demonstrations, a similar troll counterprotest in Whitefish, Montana in 2017, in Finland in 2016, responding to a nationalist anti-immigration group Soldiers of Odin, the LOLdiers of Odin followed around in clown and norse god garb, tormenting the ‘soldiers’ who were patrolling the streets to punish immigrants. In 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Latin American Coalition organized a clown counterprotest to a Ku Klux Klan rally, outnumbering the demonstrators nearly 5:1. This rally was particularly influenced by the Knoxville counterprotest, with clowns bearing the same signs of “wife power!”. In England, the nationalist English Defense League is often counter-protested by a group called the “English Disco Lovers”, showing up in disco clothes and blasting dance music. In 2014, residents of Wundeisel, Germany, responded to a neo-Nazi march with an involuntary walkathon, donating 10 euros to EXIT Deutschland, a far-right rehabilitation agency, for every meter marched, ultimately raising 12,000 euro. The group even handed out bananas to the group and cheered them on to continue walking, to raise money.