Predator or prank? ‘Black Lives Matter’ podcaster orders woman to get on her knees & APOLOGIZE for white privilege

A man claiming to work for Black Lives Matter filmed himself accosting a woman on the street in New York City, ordering her to kneel and apologize for her white privilege. Her compliance has the internet speculating feverishly.

While it was pretty clear the cameraman didn’t actually “work for Black Lives Matter” – he claimed to have been sent by its “CEO,” and BLM doesn’t have a CEO – the rest of the clip, which has been seen over 1.4 million times, was open to interpretation. Was the woman just playing along? Unbelievably gullible? Genuinely frightened?

While it was difficult to read her facial expressions due to the surgical mask she was wearing and the fact that her head was often out of frame, the white woman appeared to react with fright to the sudden appearance of the cameraman, who ran across the street to stop her. However, she was quick to follow his instructions, kneeling on the sidewalk almost as soon as he asked. She claimed to be struggling to find the “right words” for an apology, and even thanked him before hurrying off – even after he referred to President Donald Trump as “Donald Duck.”

Some viewers smelled a rat, suggesting it was “too scripted to be true.”

Others found it disturbing, convinced the woman was genuinely afraid – either of the cameraman or of what might happen if she refused to follow his orders and footage of the encounter was posted online.

There was plenty of mockery directed at the woman.

A few seemed to genuinely believe the man was from BLM, and were accordingly outraged.

On the flip side, some thought the intention was to demonize BLM and further increase racial tensions that are already riding high after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week.

The clip was taken from a longer livestreamed podcast by YouTube user “Smooth Sanchez,” who actually did accost random pedestrians in lower Manhattan on Sunday after attending a protest in Union Square. He convinced several white women to stop and kneel on the sidewalk for the sake of absolving themselves of white privilege. 

Protests in hundreds of American cities – including New York – have polarized the country, with most media focus on those protests that degenerate into violence and looting, often provoked by heavy-handed police response. Politicians, police and protesters alike have also pointed to paid provocateurs as the instigators of the violence and property destruction.

The prank may have been inspired by the viral video of a Houston church service in which the pastor split his flock by race and ordered the white worshipers to take a knee and beg forgiveness for “years of bigotry and racism.” Filmed on Sunday, the clip unsettled many who saw it, though others praised it as a show of “real Christianity.” 

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