In a tweet that has now gone viral, 18-year-old Helena Duke identified her mother, aunt, and uncle as persons filmed in the violent altercation that took place in Washington D.C. the night before a pro-Trump mob overran the Capitol.
“Hi mom remember the time you told me I shouldn’t go to BLM protests b/c they could get violent … this you?” the teen tweeted above a repost of the video.
hi mom remember the time you told me I shouldn’t go to BLM protests bc they could get violent…this you? https://t.co/9ZkbAq0ehO
— Helena Duke (@duke_helena) January 7, 2021
In the video, Duke’s mother Theresa, her aunt, and her uncle are part of a largely white crowd gathered around a Black woman who identifies herself on GoFundMe as Ashanti Smith, a Washington, D.C. resident. The video shows Theresa Duke reaching out to grab Smith, who then punches her in the nose.
Hi this is the liberal lesbian of the family who has been kicked out multiple times for her views and for going to BLM protests to care what happens to me so:
Mom: Therese Duke
Uncle: Richard Lorenz
Aunt: Annie Lorenz pic.twitter.com/cuBAPJ3GJA— Helena Duke (@duke_helena) January 7, 2021
According to Helena, she’d been kicked out of her family home last year when her mother learned that the teenager had attended a Black Lives Matter protest.
“She told me she thought Black Lives Matter was a violence organization and they would be inciting violence,” Duke said in an interview with Buzzfeed.
Then, on Thursday, Duke told Buzzfeed, she received a viral video from a cousin of an altercation that took place between Smith and her family members. “It was very surreal because it was an insane video, first of all,” Duke said, “and then it was the revelation that ‘Oh, that’s my mother. That’s her.’”
After her initial post, made on the morning of January 7th, Duke tweeted another message that afternoon identifying her mother, her aunt Annie Lorenz, and her uncle Richard Lorenz.
Duke told Buzzfeed that she’d suspected her mother had gone to D.C. to take part in the pro-Trump rally scheduled for January 6. Whether her mother, her uncle, or her aunt attended that rally is unclear.
“I always felt almost heartbroken over how they viewed the world and how skewed it was and how they wouldn’t allow me to express my views. But showing that they can act in such a horrible way is just really appalling to me,” she said in the interview. “I am honestly very disappointed to have to be part of this family that is so…just, very not welcoming or supportive. I don’t feel safe being part of this family.”
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