"Proud Boys" trademark now owned by Black Church

Camille

Kitchen Wench #TeamQuaid
Staff member

The racist Proud Boys militia group has lost control of its trademarked name following a federal judge’s decision, resulting in the group being prohibited from selling merchandise with its name or logo without consent from Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a Black church.

The humiliating decision is a result of a default judgement from a 2020 attack against the church following a pro-Trump rally, during which Proud Boys members destroyed a “Black Lives Matter” sign posted in front of the church.

The group declined to turn over the $2.8 million that they owed the church following that attack, so the confiscation of the Proud Boys trademark was ordered by Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier, who described the group as “hateful and overtly racist” in her decision.

Proud Boys leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, whined about the court’s decision, calling it a “betrayal of justice.”

“I hold in contempt any motions, judgments, and orders issued against me,” he told The New York Times.


Tarrio was recently released from prison following President Donald Trump’s blanket pardon for everyone who attacked the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Tarrio was the most high-profile offender and had been convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States as part of his plot to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor.

Trump has long been tied to the racist group through their shared right-wing extremist ideology, and he infamously directed the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his 2020 presidential debate with former President Joe Biden, who condemned the group and other forms of extremism.

Along with the group’s connections to Trump and the Republican Party, its bigoted cause has been championed by conservative media outlets. Most notably, key figures in the Proud Boys have been welcomed numerous times on Fox News.

Following his release from prison, Tarrio said he wants revenge against those who are responsible for his conviction.

“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted,” he told conspiracy theorist and fellow Trump ally Alex Jones.

While the threat is ominous, the Proud Boys have to move forward with the knowledge that a Black church is now in control of the group’s brand—empowering the same people it has fought to repress for years.
 

DC_Dude

Rising Star
BGOL Investor

A Historic DC Black Church Now Owns the Proud Boys’ Name​

Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church can seize any money the far-right group makes from selling merchandise.​

Written by Andrew Beaujon

Photograph by Evy Mages

Members of the Proud Boys amid the chaos of the December 2020 rally for Trump fans in DC. Photograph by Evy Mages


A DC judge awarded the Proud Boys’ trademarks to downtown’s Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church Monday. The ruling means that the far-right group can no longer use its name, and “clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath,” the New York Times reports.
The church, where Frederick Douglass, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Obama have worshipped, sued the Proud Boys in January 2021 after they destroyed Black Lives Matter signs in during the mayhem that ensued around a December 2020 rally for President Trump. Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio pleaded guilty to the act that July. The Proud Boys were ordered to pay the church more than $1 million in 2023 but the group failed to do so, leading to Monday’s ruling.


ADVERTISING

Trump pardoned Tarrio, who also pleaded guilty to bringing a high-capacity magazine into the District, when he returned to office last month, and members of the group marched in DC on Inauguration Day. Tarrio called the ruling a “betrayal of justice,” the Times reports.
 

Ceenote

Thinkn with My 3rd Eye!
Platinum Member

A Historic DC Black Church Now Owns the Proud Boys’ Name​

Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church can seize any money the far-right group makes from selling merchandise.​

Written by Andrew Beaujon

Photograph by Evy Mages

Members of the Proud Boys amid the chaos of the December 2020 rally for Trump fans in DC. Photograph by Evy Mages


A DC judge awarded the Proud Boys’ trademarks to downtown’s Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church Monday. The ruling means that the far-right group can no longer use its name, and “clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath,” the New York Times reports.
The church, where Frederick Douglass, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Obama have worshipped, sued the Proud Boys in January 2021 after they destroyed Black Lives Matter signs in during the mayhem that ensued around a December 2020 rally for President Trump. Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio pleaded guilty to the act that July. The Proud Boys were ordered to pay the church more than $1 million in 2023 but the group failed to do so, leading to Monday’s ruling.


ADVERTISING

Trump pardoned Tarrio, who also pleaded guilty to bringing a high-capacity magazine into the District, when he returned to office last month, and members of the group marched in DC on Inauguration Day. Tarrio called the ruling a “betrayal of justice,” the Times reports.


Sounds like them lawyers gonna be busy for a while..
I just found that pat riley did the sane with 3 peat
 

DJ

BGOL Legend
Certified Pussy Poster
I hope they start producing and selling merchandise with the name featuring prominent black figures.
 

Non-StopJFK2TAB

Rising Star
Platinum Member
I hope they start producing and selling merchandise with the name featuring prominent black figures.
Can you emphasize the “boys”?

I think you should sell racist paraphernalia and profit from it. We have folks proud of selling dope. But make sure the cotton shirts are ethically sourced and the designers are paid a fair and decent wage.
 

Non-StopJFK2TAB

Rising Star
Platinum Member
Karrine Stephans did the same thing with trademarking "Super Head"...but she gets mad when you call her that.
Do you think slave masters cried when they received their checks? People don’t really resent the money and I’m almost positive she wasn’t insulted someone used her intellectual property.
 

REDLINE

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
The word proud has you feeling some type of way. I couldn’t even imagine not being PROUD of being black.

Can you emphasize the “boys”?

I think you should sell racist paraphernalia and profit from it. We have folks proud of selling dope. But make sure the cotton shirts are ethically sourced and the designers are paid a fair and decent wage.

Do you think slave masters cried when they received their checks? People don’t really resent the money and I’m almost positive she wasn’t insulted someone used her intellectual property.
Ok this is just what you do.

Duly noted.
 
Top