BLM activists disrupt Mizzou peace vigil for Orlando victims

A peace vigil honoring the victims of the Orlando terror attack degenerated into a shouting match Monday between mourners and Black Lives Matter activists at the University of Missouri.

During the vigil, The Daily Caller reports that MU graduate Tiffany Melecio berated the predominately white audience for paying more attention to issues affecting the LGBT community rather than issues affecting racial justice.

In a video obtained by The College Fix, Melecio said she was nervous to speak “because there’s so many white people in the crowd,” clarifying that the remark “wasn’t a joke” when members of the crowd laughed.

“I wish this many people came out to our racial demonstrations and our Black Lives Matter movements,” Melecio said. “But I thought I’d take a moment to list out some facts that many of you probably don’t know because you’re white.”

Rather than using the vigil to remember the 49 individuals who lost their lives and comfort grieving souls, Melecio and Black Lives Matter protestors used the vigil as a forum to complain about racial tensions.

“As much as it’s awesome that so many people are here today,” she continued, “it’s like, who are you really here for?”

Melecio’s comments created tension in the crowd of roughly 800, according to The Columbian Missourian, with some cheering Melecio’s derogatory comments while others shouted back their objections.

“We’re here for everybody,” one member of the audience yelled, prompting another attendee, Carl Brizendine, to shout, “We are here to be uniting, not dividing, which is what you are doing now.” The crowd then proceeded to yell at Brizendine for his comments.

“So you feel uncomfortable with the fact that people who are murdered are Latino people?” Multicultural Center Coordinator Stephanie Hernandez Rivera asked the audience. “That is a personal problem. You cannot be an ally to one person.”

“It’s about everybody, not just one person or one life or one color; it’s about all of us,” one man in the distant crowd yelled in response to Rivera’s comments. “All of us that have to live on this Earth. It has nothing to do with white, black, Indian, Hispanic, anything.”

The vigil-turned-protest sparked conversation among more than just those in attendance. The twittersphere erupted following the vigil with several tweets condemning the Black Lives Matter movement including one tweet that said “Here we see “#BlackLivesMatter activists taking over a vigil for the Orlando victims. I guess #GayLivesDontMatter?”

Audience member, Daniel Brizendine, expressed his anger about the event in a Facebook post, saying, “I am tired and angry and sad that some people in Columbia had to make our vigil tonight into a race issue”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @morgan_walker95