Cody Blackbird
An area Arizona store proprietor interrupted an ESPN shoot this week to mock Native American performers — whereas yelling, “MAGA country” — and the entire racist tirade is on video.
Cody Blackbird — who’s of Cherokee/Dakota descent, and was one of many Native American performers employed by ESPN for the Super Bowl promo — tells TMZ a dude named Gilbert Ortega began taunting the dancers from the entrance of his jewellery store Tuesday in downtown Scottsdale.
We’re informed Ortega was mimicking their actions and chants — in a demeaning manner — and that prompted some within the group to come back over and confront him whereas filming.
TMZ obtained some footage of the confrontation, and it reveals Ortega was on the market to impress and posture … calling the Native Americans “f**king Indians,” invoking MAGA and telling them to return to Gallup, NM, which is house to a widely known reservation.
Ortega even got here out for a tense face-to-face with the group at one level … on a dare to say what he was saying to their faces. So, yeah … he was searching for bother and attempting to get beneath the performers’ pores and skin. Unfortunately, he succeeded.
Luckily, there was no violence … Ortega was whisked away by a pal, and the entire thing fizzled out after he went again into his institution — a enterprise, BTW, that satirically sells Native American gadgets.
Some members of the Native American group have been upset sufficient to contact cops to complain. The Scottsdale Police Dept. tells us they’re investigating the incident as “possible disorderly conduct” … and, as of now, they do not see something that rises to the extent of a hate crime. That’s topic to alter based mostly on the investigation.
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