Image by Twitter

By Sam Kestenbaum January 23, 2017

Image by Twitter

Actor and performance artist Shia LaBeouf shouted down a man espousing white supremacist doctrine in an altercation that was live streamed as part of a protest art piece against President Donald Trump over the weekend.

An unnamed man wearing a grey hat and a black backpack interrupted a group chant led by LaBeouf to face the camera and say, “Fourteen eighty-eight,” a well-known white supremacist slogan.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

A clip of the encounter was posted online on Sunday night.

The man went on to recite the first part of that slogan, which states: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

LaBeouf was born to a Jewish mother and a Christian father and recently converted to Christianity, with some help from Brad Pitt.

But LaBeouf interrupted the white nationalist slogan mid-sentence, shouting “He will not divide us,” until the unnamed man stepped out of the frame of the camera.

LaBeouf’s live-stream art project, titled “He will not divide us,” is housed at a New York City museum where Americans concerned by Donald Trump’s presidency can film themselves speaking out in protest.

The live stream began on inauguration day and invites members of the public to recite the mantra “He will not divide us,” into a webcam — which is on day and night — for the next four years.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount