Contractor shows up waving the wrong flag

[packman]

Sorry - tried to copy video but failed . Go to site to view

https://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh1GMA491lA3mT6G0m

[3catwoman3]

1. Sometimes, you absolutely...

...CAN tell a book by its cover.

[fescuerescue]

24. I've never quite agreed with that saying

The whole idea of a book cover is to give you an ideal of what's in it. Cause nobody has time to read the entire library before picking out a book.

And to protect the book of course.

off topic I know...

[lark]

2. Awesome sauce

[PunkinPi]

3. Here's the video via Twitter...

Link to tweet

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. That looked staged.

[PunkinPi]

10. Quite possible.

[Demonaut]

12. I don't think it was

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Why?

A guy with a newish SUV, not a panel van or a truck, with no business name on it, parks in a way that we can't see the flag (which is mounted in a way that would make it impossible to open the rear door) until the "reveal." It just looked staged. That's not to say there aren't plenty of morons driving around with Confederate flags on their vehicles, but it seems awfully unlikely that a contractor would come to the home of a black family to do work for them with his SUV thus adorned.

[Demonaut]

19. he backed into the driveway, unloading his tools?, she was natural in her speech and he responded

in a quiet manner, the contractor is obviously an racist idiot

It didn't look staged to me, if it was staged then why did we not see him pull up, the video starts when it would be a reasonable for the timing of his arrival and the reaction of the homeowner.

[jberryhill]

22. The video starts when the doorbell cam detects movement

So, yes, the video would have started much sooner and included him driving up, turning around, backing into the driveway and then turning sideways to block the other vehicle in. That's a doorbell cam, in contrast to the cell phone that the husband is holding, which would have captured a much better video, but would have lacked the 'reveal' effect caused by having backed the vehicle into the driveway and turning it sideways like that.

What is that you think caused the video to start?

[Demonaut]

25. they may have edited out the arrival for a number of reasons but the video captured her reaction

and physical presence perfectly, a hand held cell may have cropped her out, the ring doorbell cams have a very wide angle camera, more than a cell phone

[fescuerescue]

27. 100%. I don't buy it.

And the license tags were strategically blocked.

I've met alot of contractors, and they don't drive vehicles like that because they aren't practical for that sort of work. A nice SUV like that would get ruined quickly from loading tools and supplies in and out constantly.

Also - those flags like that? They don't last long driving around day to day. they get shredded fast. You see nuckle heads driving with those, but it's in places like a beach or cruising area. NOT driving from customer to customer.

Now I've seen alot of contractors with confederate flag stickers on the windows of their pickup trucks (with ladder racks etc), but that's a vehicle a contractor would keep at home to drive the family around, not work days.

I'm rarely wrong on these but I could be. This is staged.

[skypilot]

28. I rent, so my landlord would be the one to hire contractors...

...but I would imagine that one who'd travelled some distance would make more of an issue of being turned away after the time they'd spent traveling to your location.

[Bonx]

29. Did they also fake a Yahoo article with names and details?

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/black-family-fires-contractor-who-shows-up-to-job-with-confederate-flag-on-truck-i-cannot-pay-you-194856544.html

[jberryhill]

31. Okay. What's the contractor's name?

[Bonx]

33. Michael. If you need more, ask the author: Elise Sol

[jberryhill]

34. Ah, Michael the contractor

Okay.

[Bonx]

35. You're welcome. Any more questions?

[jberryhill]

40. Yeah

Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?

(Please explain your answer, and I have to know this before 5 PM today)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

36. OK, fair enough. But the incident did seem pretty neat and perfect,

and these days a lot of stuff gets posted that deserves closer scrutiny. And it seems so strange and so unbelievably stupid that anyone would display that thing on their business vehicle. He said he got it for the Fourth of July, WTF?

[fescuerescue]

44. Because Yahoo never gets it wrong with staged videos

Except for the past 100 of course.

[Bonx]

46. Wow, 100? I'm going to enjoy these. Please link below.

[fescuerescue]

47. obvious exageration

is obvious., or so I thought.

Seriously though, you've never seen the media incorrectly pick up on a hoax?

I do find staged videos to be a rather weird thing. Some folks go to great lengths to justify, against odds why it could actually be real, while others see through right away.

Certainly isn't a left/right political thing, but I wonder if it's left brain/right brain thing?

To my eyes and analysis, it's clear as the sky is blue that it is staged, but other well meaning folks take it at face value.

[Bonx]

50. So they fooled MSN too.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212241087

[fescuerescue]

53. wouldn't be the first time

nor the last.

[jberryhill]

15. How was he planning to get into the back of the vehicle?

[Demonaut]

21. the flag was on a pole on the drivers side of the rear of his vehicle, it did not block the tailgate

and it he offered to remove it so I would think it was easy to move if needed for access to the rear of his vehicle

[ooky]

26. That was my first thought.

If not, that is a special kind of stupid.

[Hekate]

42. Tone of voice and all, that is exactly how I would have handled it. No hissy fit, no insults...

Just goodbye, we don't need your services.

The jerk absolutely got the message.

ON EDIT: the deconstruction of the clip that occurs in this thread has caused me to reconsider taking it at face value. What a world.

[MineralMan]

4. What was he thinking?

Or was he thinking at all?

[jberryhill]

6. Oh c'mon

Well, let's see....

Someone was thinking "we're going to have to back the vehicle into the driveway and position it just so that the flag is blocked by the wall until he drives away, so that the huge-ass flag which would make it problematic to actually access any 'contracting equipment' in the back of the SUV, acts as the punchline for the video."

That's what someone was thinking.

What sort of work did he come "a long way" prepared to do, with a flagpole blocking the rear door of an SUV (not a van or a pickup truck)?

Why did he back into the driveway and turn the vehicle sideways, blocking the other vehicle from getting out of the two-car driveway? Who would park that way in someone's driveway?

He goes out of his way to turn around in the cul de sac, in order to back into a two-car driveway, and then turns his vehicle sideways in the driveway.... why? I mean, sure, it provides a better angle for him to be in full view standing next to the vehicle and getting back in, and it keeps the flag out of view as the "surprise" until the end of the video, but otherwise it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It's going to be a long election year as people continue to take every random thing on the internet at face value.

[BKDem]

20. Also

The sound of the SUV starting up comes before the guy gets in. Maybe edited in post production to speed up the big reveal?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

38. Seemed like a remote start to me.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

39. "What sort of work did he come 'a long way' prepared to do, with a flagpole blocking the rear door

of an SUV (not a van or a pickup truck)?"

Change the brakes on the couple's golf cart.

Someone was thinking "we're going to have to back the vehicle into the driveway and position it just so that the flag is blocked by the wall until he drives away, so that the huge-ass flag which would make it problematic to actually access any 'contracting equipment' in the back of the SUV, acts as the punchline for the video."

This will sound weird and like a total reach, but it's becoming best practice for a lot of companies that have drivers to encourage or require those drivers to back into parking rather than backing out into traffic, because it's safer. It also could have been a circle driveway.

The Yahoo story claims to have gotten in touch with Michael the Contractor as well.

[jberryhill]

41. You think he stocks a lot of golf cart brakes?

Or did he purchase the brakes for their model and end up stuck with them?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

43. Who knows? If the video is legit, then probably the latter.

If the video is legit, then he's an openly racist ass and I don't really give a shit about what he's stuck with as the result of his actions.

[lunasun]

17. What would let him know they are not white before he arrived? They probably had an "American "

sounding last name . .so
Plenty of white people here on Du talk about using services and running in to bigots and do they always say they denied or stopped the service ? Some do. Some don’t . Some whites may turn him away others will not .

[MineralMan]

18. Nothing that I know of, and I didn't imply that he did know.

But, here's the deal: If you're in business and you broadcast that you are bigoted, you are going to lose some business. If you want to take that risk, you can do that, I suppose, but it's not a smart idea. It doesn't matter whether his customer was white or black. In either case, he ran the risk of losing that job through his display of bigotry.

I'm white. I would have sent him away, too. And I'd have been less polite about it, to boot.

[Sunsky]

32. I see them all the time around S. Florida

Driving their work vehicle with confederate flag stickers etc. I always make the comment that if one of them shows up at my house, he/she wouldn't step through my front door. I applaud these people
I'm even more impressed that they let him know exactly why he lost their business. I would've done the same.

[jberryhill]

5. Non-clickbait description for people who find clickbait on DU to be rude

This link to an advertising-laden website includes a video which purports to be a doorbell cam video of an African American couple informing a contractor that they have decided not to use his service, because he has showed up with a large confederate flag mounted to the rear of his vehicle.

The video has obvious problems and appears to be simply set up. First, one wonders what the "contractor" was hired to do, since he shows up in an ordinary SUV to which access to the rear compartment is blocked by the huge flagpole on his bumper. The flagpole appears to be merely wedged in the rear bumper, and it is unlikely he has come "a long way" with that flag remaining intact back there, or that the flag has been there long, since it is in pristine condition.

But the obvious fakery has to do with the way the vehicle is positioned.

The house is at the end of a cul de sac, but for reasons not at all obvious, the "contractor" drove up, turned around, and then backed into the driveway for no apparent reason. Plus, he managed to park the vehicle precisely so that the "reveal" of the flag does not happen until he gets into the vehicle and pulls away. The view of the flag from the doorbell cam is just blocked by the wall of the porch so that we see the SUV and the contractor, but the flag comes into view as the "punchline" of this obviously fake clickbait video designed to virally promote this advertisting-laden website.

You're welcome.

[Demit]

7. LOL Thank you! Deconstructions like this are greatly appreciated.

Hopefully it helps make people look at things more critically, even skeptically. Thanks for taking the time.

[jberryhill]

8. Couple of other things to notice

What's happening as the video starts?

He is getting out of the SUV and they both come out of the front door, apparently having been ready there and not assuming that the vehicle which backed into their driveway wasn't just turning around, having taken a wrong turn into the cul de sac. They come out of the front door before he even gets out of his truck.

They know who he is, without anyone saying anything. Is he the contractor they were going to meet or someone who is simply lost and in the wrong place? There is no, "Are you <name of contractor they were expecting>?", "Can we help you?" or similar attempt to figure out if he's the contractor - who works out of an SUV with no identifying information on it.

Notice the husband - he's holding a cell phone and taking video. HIS video would be much sharper and would show the flag the whole time. Instead, what we get is the crappy-resolution doorbell video because the framing is better for the "punchline" effect of that huge pristine flag. Have you ever seen what flags that size look like after a little time mounted to a vehicle? (Particularly off the back like that in the exhaust vortex area)

I suppose it could be real, but if so, then it was a remarkable piece of good luck that he backed into the driveway and turned sideways for no apparent reason.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Also, don't most contractors usually have the name of their business on their vehicles?

Even if it's just a magnetic sign? I don't remember having ever done business with any contractor (plumber, electrician, etc.) who didn't have their business name on their truck or van.

[EffieBlack]

48. Apparently, this is the real deal.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman-calmly-fires-contractor-flying-confederate-flag-off-truck-our-money-wont-go-to-such-hate/ar-AADOmFs?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[jberryhill]

49. Same report repeated elsewhere

And unverified by anyone else because “Michael” has no other name.

[LanternWaste]

13. No doubt, you presume it's fake.

That would be... consistent.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. There's a lot of fakery going around these days. It's just sensible to view things,

especially viral videos purporting to send a message (whether their side or ours), with a bit of skepticism. Sometimes the goal is just to create clickbait, but there's nothing wrong with noting dubious details.

[Leith]

23. It doesn't matter if it's staged or not

It's the message that counts. And it's a damn good message.

[Quackers]

30. Yes, it does matter if it's staged. With that said, I see no reason to believe it was. nt

[fescuerescue]

45. I don't know about that

I think the fraudulent delivery overshadows the good message.

[lunatica]

37. Damn! His dick must be tiny!

[Hoyt]

51. Refused a bid from a painter around 2008 who bashed Obama.

[customerserviceguy]

52. My question is

When stories start showing up about Trumpsters refusing to do business with contractors that arrive at their homes with bumper stickers from Democratic candidates, will we be as OK with it as we are now?

We're being torn in two.