The Proud Boys

Overview

The Proud Boys is a far-right neo-fascist organization founded by Gavin McInnes in 2016. Formed just before the 2016 Presidential Election, the Proud Boys rose to national attention as a result of their repeated violent confrontations with anti-fascist groups during protests on college campuses and during the summer of 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The organization’s membership is open exclusively to men, recruiting potential members by appealing to what they perceive as the erosion of Western culture by feminists, socialists, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community in an ultimate plot to oppress men. According to Samantha Kutner, the Proud Boys use the coded term “western chauvinism as code for white, multiculturalism reinterpreted as White genocide, and caustic labels given to feminists and civil rights activists to mark them as opposition.”

Ideology

Much of the Proud Boys’ ideology revolves around what they describe as “Western chauvinism,” or the claim that Western civilization stands superior to that of others, such as Islamic or other non-American and non-European cultures. Furthermore, the group emphasizes traditional gender roles for men and women and stands in strong opposition to feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and other social justice movements they perceive as threats to traditional masculinity. Other aspects of the group’s ideological milieu celebrate violence, often engaging in street brawls with leftists and anti-fascist protestors and donning shirts praising the murder of leftists by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Notable Members

Gavin McInnes

Born in Hertfordshire, England, to Scottish parents, McInnes moved to Canada at the age of four. In 1994, McInnes co-founded Vice magazine in Montreal alongside Shane Smith and Suroosh Avi. Citing “creative differences,” McInnes left Vice in 2008, embarking on a series of script-writing ventures for various networks as well as co-founding Rooster, an advertising agency. After writing an online essay titled “Transphobia is Perfectly Normal” for Thought Catalog in 2014, McInnes took an indefinite leave of absence and joined Canadian far-right media outlet Rebel Media, only to leave in 2017 and start his show Get Off My Lawn. During this time, McInnes introduced the Proud Boys to the world, debuting in an article on the website of Taki Magazine–a far-right media outlet that once employed white nationalist Richard Spencer as its executive editor. Currently, McInnes runs Censored.TV, an online video platform airing various conservative and far-right political and media figures.

Notable Events and Activities

In 2017, several Proud Boys attended the Unite the Right rally organized by white supremacist Jason Kessler–and former Proud Boy–in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the national fallout following the rally, which intensified after the murder of Heather Hyer by neo-Nazi James Alex Fields, McInnes attempted to distance himself and the organization from the broader alt-right movement.

Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, Proud Boys clashed with Black Lives Matter protestors across the country, most notably in the Pacific Northwest in cities such as Portland and Seattle. In Portland, Proud Boys member Skylor Jernigan drove his vehicle through a group of counterprotestors, firing gunshots at the crowd. A year later, Jernigan pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors, receiving three years probation.

Leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack, several Proud Boys, including former chairman Enrique Tarrio, vandalized the Ashbury United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., in which they recorded themselves flashing white supremacist hand signs and burning a Black Lives Batter banner.

Several Proud Boys participated in breaching the U.S. Capitol on January 6, with Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl being convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Symbology and Iconography

Black and Yellow Fred Perry polo shirt

The most prominent symbol of the Proud Boys is their attire. Proud Boys members are most often seen wearing the “twin-tipped” black polo shirt with yellow stripes from Fred Perry, a British fashion brand. Despite its ubiquitous adoption, Fred Perry issued a statement in September 2020, announcing they would be pulling the black and yellow polo shirt from the US market.

Rooster

Perched on a weather vein pointing west–a call to the group’s idea that the “West is best,” and reinforcing their ideology of “Western chauvinism”–the rooster has become a staple in the Proud Boys’ symbology.