One's Antifa. One's In A Militia. How An Ancestry Match Led To An Unlikely Bond
The Facebook message instantly struck Andrew as suspicious.
The note was from a stranger in Virginia named Cody who claimed to be a distant relative based on the uncommon last name they share. NPR is withholding it for security reasons. Cody's profile picture showed a burly masked man in militia-style get-up with a semiautomatic rifle slung across his chest.
"Um. Yeah. I was concerned," recalled Andrew, a 31-year-old music producer in Los Angeles. "That's probably the nicest way I could say it."
Andrew figured it was an identity-theft scam. Or, because the note had arrived during last summer's racial justice protests, maybe a right-wing infiltration attempt related to his work as an organizer with Black Lives Matter groups.
"I was very hesitant, obviously," he said. "But I also was intrigued. I've never met another person with my last name that I didn't have a direct relationship to."
Andrew warily accepted Cody's offer to trace his genealogy. Cody returned with records showing that they were eighth cousins; the research checked out with Andrew's own. "Once he got all the way back to the 1700s," Andrew said, he was convinced that Cody was legit. He wanted to learn more.
But there was still that unsettling profile pic with the body armor. The AR-15.
"I was like, 'This guy's a Proud Boy,' " Andrew said. "And we're related."
Cody, 24, is not part of the violent Proud Boys, but he does belong to a different segment of right-wing extremism. About two years ago, he joined a small Virginia-based gun group that's aligned with the Three Percenters, a cornerstone of the anti-government militia movement. Two members — not Cody — were at the Jan. 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol. When the two saw it descend into violence, Cody said, "they booked it," and didn't join the mob.
"You gotta be kidding me. Some dude
