UPDATE: Please scroll to the bottom of this post for an update from Scholz management.
An Indivisible Austin member was targeted for abuse by a group of white supremacists today and their car was vandalized.
Today, neo-Nazis held a hate-filled rally at the State Capitol in Austin to claim that “Tomorrow Belongs to Texas” (a reference to the song from Cabaret and a favorite of prominent racist Richard Spencer, despite the fact that it was written by a gay Jewish progressive). They then headed over to Scholz Garten for an after party. They lied and misrepresented their group’s true nature to the Scholz management. Reports suggest they represented themselves as a veterans’ group, not only hiding their own name, but stealing valor from real veterans.
Indivisible Austin happened to be holding an event at Scholz at the same time. We had a sign posted, and several members were wearing their IATX t-shirts or had bumper stickers on their cars. One of our members, dressed in an IATX shirt, left the meeting a little early, and was verbally attacked with anti-Semitic slurs and videotaped by these people. This person then found that their car, which had progressive bumper stickers, had been vandalized.
We have contacted the Austin Police Department, the Anti-Defamation League, and reached out to Scholz management to understand how and why this happened. We trust that they were deceived by a group with bad intentions.
If you were at Scholz’ around 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, June 17 and you witnessed any part of the assault, please contact us at Board@IndivisibleAustin.com or DM us through Facebook or Twitter.
Scholz Garten is well-known as the home of Texas progressive social gatherings, and Indivisible Austin will not stand by while bigots turn it into a home for hate groups. We have decided to carry on with our previously scheduled happy hour there next Saturday at 5:30 p.m. If you plan on coming, please show your solidarity with an Indivisible or other progressive t-shirt.
We were asked, with rather short notice, to accommodate a party to be hosted Sat June 17. The group represented themselves to our staff as “TBT” and that they were a “Veterans group.” While we searched for information on “TBT Veterans” we found nothing good or bad and confirmed the booking. There was no mention of participating in a march or their actual name. Based on today’s events we now understand they misrepresented themselves and misled our Scholz events team, management and staff. Please rest assured we would never give any group on the side of Hate a platform for any reason.
The question “Does anyone know anything about these Frank- Hot Dogs, Cold Beer people who are now running operations?” was posed. The new operators have run many local businesses for decades that promote Diversity, Unity, Inclusion, and Love. The owners have spent time on many non-profit and charitable boards and have had a hand in raising awareness and funds for many righteous causes. We have prepared and distributed Thanksgiving meals for hundreds of Austin’s homeless and Safe Place, driven cargo trucks full of supplies to Standing Rock, Raised money for West Texas Fire Relief, Autism Awareness, Cancer Awareness, aGLIFF, Love-a-Bull, Boys and Girls Club of Austin, ACLU and more. We’re not patting ourselves on the back by any means but we do want you to know that we take Austin, Texas, our businesses, our guests, life, love, happiness and equality very seriously.
We will do everything to continue to support the great groups who call Scholz home and can reassure you Hate groups like Tomorrow Belongs to Texas are not welcome in this place of acceptance.
With love, Scholz Owners, Staff & Family