A special agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation couldn’t have profiled Xander Almeida anymore inaccurately. In a backyard in Northeast Portland on Aug. 16, Almeida smoked a cigarette and drank whisky, and for eight minutes a FBI agent questioned him about his involvement in protests and alleged his intent to bring and use chemical weapons against police.
Almeida, a Mexican American who defines himself as a reluctant Republican, was flabbergasted. “Chemical weapons? I’m not a terrorist,” he said. “But according to Trump I am.”
A day earlier, Special Agent Ruby Soto from the FBI’s Las Vegas Division went to Almeida’s place of work. She told his co-workers to let him know the FBI was looking to talk to him. The day before that, two agents went to Almeida’s old rental address and asked a previous housemate if he still lived there.
Almeida contacted a lawyer before calling the handwritten cellphone number Soto wrote on her business card. On the phone with the agent and his lawyer, Almeida listened intently to her line of questioning.
As he remembers it, Soto asked: Do you know of anyone that has made or is planning to make chemical weapons to use on law enforcement officers at protests? Have you made or are planning to make chemical weapons to use against law enforcement officers?
A comment under one of Almeida’s Facebook posts related to attending a protest spurred the inquiry. Almeida told Street Roots he does not know the person who wrote out the ingredients for making chemical weapons.
Neither Agent Soto nor a spokesperson at Portland’s FBI Field Office would confirm or deny the interaction and questioning that occurred, citing Department of Justice policy.
As Soto asked Almeida questions, his lawyer interrupted to tell her that she was barking up the wrong tree. He told her his client is an upright, patriotic citizen — one who waves the American flag at protests.
For more than two months, the streets of Portland have seen night after night of protests, where individuals and communities decry the police killings of Black and brown people and call out the dehumanization and systemic racism Black and brown communities face in 21st century America.
The American flag — a once-shared symbol that has come to represent racism and oppression to some and right-wing patriotism to others — is symbolic at the protests; sometimes on fire, and sometimes upside-down, which is a way to signal distress.
The politicization of the flag is not new. According to Ted Kaye, secretary at the North American Vexillological Association, the American flag was first politicized during the Civil War, when it became part of civic propaganda on both sides. During the two world wars, it was used to mobilize and build enthusiasm in the country in order to make sacrifices for war, and more recently, in the months following 9-11, Kaye said, there was a tenfold increase in the number of flags purchased.
“And interestingly,” Kaye told Street Roots, “similar to today, in the 1960s, there was a battle over who got to use the flag to represent their point of view in the anti-war movement, civil rights movement. The Klan used the American flag more than it used the Confederate flag. The civil rights movement used the American flag to demonstrate it was promoting the ideals the flag was supposed to stand for.
“I’m reluctant to engage in the word co-opt — it’s a loaded term that implies theft,” Kaye said in reference to the Republican Party’s adoption of the flag in its propaganda. “The American flag is available to everyone,” he said. Any group can fly it and claim that it is their flag, and that it represents the values that they are trying to advance.
This past weekend, it was with American flags flying that a caravan of Trump supporters invaded downtown Portland, and it was under the banner of the flag that they assaulted Black Lives Matter protesters, with their vehicles, pepper spray and fists.
But the people marching in support of Black lives are not part of a monolith, and to some, that same flag represents very different values.
Almeida, who is 35 and has lived in Portland for almost 16 years, is one of them, and he doesn’t fit into any of the Portland protester archetypes portrayed on the nightly news, either.
“I identify as a Republican, a reluctant Republican,” he said. He has been attending the protests since they began in May — for a short time as street medic, and later as a protester.
“When the feds showed up and started brutalizing people, I thought, ‘I can’t sit on the sidelines anymore,’” he said, and since then, he hasn’t.
It’s not just Almeida’s political beliefs, as a past Oregon Republican delegate, and the former president of the College Republicans at Portland State University, that make the claim “all protesters are the same” obsolete.
The same week President Donald Trump ordered federal troops to Portland, Almeida was at the Justice Center downtown when the idea of bringing a flag to protests first struck him.
“I saw this Black man with a bright white T-shirt on, waving an American flag near the top of the fence. He was then shot in the head with something — as he was waving the American flag. And, after street medics attended to him for a few moments, he popped up again, holding a compress to his head, and he was back up, waving his flag.”
Almeida doesn’t want to put words in the mouth of this individual, but for him, witnessing this event felt encouraging. “Being African American in this country, you’ve been historically oppressed, oftentimes under that flag, but yet to me, it seemed that for this man, the flag held hope and promise, and that he would be waving it, in front of the feds, on the front line, was inspiring.”
A few days later, Almeida was back down at the Justice Center, but this time he carried a flagpole, and a fastened to it was an upright American flag.
Almeida grew up very close to his first-generation Mexican-American grandfather, Amos Almeida, who had a profound influence on his life. Amos was a part of the United States 101st Airborne Division since its inception in 1942, and he fought in World War II.
He also received a Purple Heart, and in 2009 he was presented with the highest award France can give to a non-French citizen.
“My grandfather was born a fighter and a very proud American for what he did during the war. He liberated concentration camps and realized that the bigger thing he was fighting for was against fascism, and this brutal Third Reich, and to him he did these things proudly under the American flag.”
Conversations like this one instilled in his grandson what the American flag is supposed to represent.
“Ultimately the American flag symbolizes its continuous quest to be a more perfect union. I believe that the ideals that this republic was founded on were good ideals. The flag is a symbol to fight for a more perfect union,” Almeida said. “He stood up against the force that promoted absolute white supremacy, as a brown man, and he was more than willing to go and sacrifice three years of his life constantly to fight against white supremacy in Europe, and to fight for equality, freedom of religion and expression.”
Almeida knew reactions to seeing his flag downtown wouldn’t all be positive. He knew some protesters were burning American flags, but he decided to bring his flag to the protests despite that, so he could talk to people about what it should stand for as opposed to what some have co-opted it to mean.
“I’m going to go out and protest the violence against our American citizens, and against the feds being here. I’ve been thinking to myself about how my grandfather had to go fight against Nazis, a brutal, well-trained military force, and all is being asked of me right now is to take some tear gas and rubber bullets. If I’m not willing to do that, I’d be a disappointment to my grandfather’s legacy,” he said.
That first night after witnessing the feds shooting the flag-waving protester, Almeida and his good friend, Jon Dutch, who he describes as “the most pro-American, flag wearing, progressive liberal he knows,” went downtown with the purpose of putting their bodies on the line for Black and brown lives, all while holding the American flag.
Dutch told Street Roots that although he and Almeida share different ideologies, they still see eye-to-eye. “We both agree that systemic racism is real, that it exists, that there needs to be an overhaul of the criminal justice system, and I think that those ideas transcend whether you’re Democrat, Republican, an anarchist,” Dutch said. “Whatever you are, these are universal things that transcend politics.”
Almeida said most of his experiences with protesters who noticed him and his friend waving a flag ended up being positive. “A lot of them were upset with us, but once we explained to them why we were down there and why we were holding the flag, they gave us high-fives, sometimes fist bumps,” he said.
“Some people screamed at us, and told us that we were fascists and holding a fascist symbol, and I tried to explain who I am, and how my grandfather fought fascism under the American flag, and that it should be used to do that again,” Almeida said.
It disturbs him to watch law enforcement who are sworn to protect the Constitution, including the right to assemble and protest, show more or less unequivocally unnecessary retaliation against protesters — all while having the American flag embroidered on their uniform.
To Dutch, the flag represents a way forward.
“That’s where we’re at right now, we have to decide where we’re going to go with it.” There is no higher form of patriotism than dissent,” said Dutch, who refers to himself as a flag bearer. He said it’s important to show that people participating in the protests extend beyond the far-left.
Almeida understands and respects the reasons some view the American flag as an oppressive symbol and said it’s a valid point to feel this way, since unjust and brutal things have been done in this country, under the American flag, and that much of what America has come to stand for is rooted in bad ideas and bad causes.
“I get it and respect the decision to view it as an oppressive symbol, but again, my fight is for this symbol that stands for righteousness and justice,” he said. “If someone wants to hate on the flag, if someone wants to burn it, spit on it, by God that is your right, and I understand. I understand your frustration and anger, especially in the last couple of years; I totally get it. I am not going to besmirch them one bit.”
Almeida said police have the responsibility to de-escalate things. “If you want to be called a peace officer, try to go instill some peace,” he said. “But, if you come out night after night, dressed like a soldier, ready to do battle against an invading force, and you have basically the legal right to kill us and say you felt threatened, the power dynamic is completely unbalanced.”
He emphasizes that Trump and the Republican Party are not fighting to protect people of color in this country, and that is one reason why he’s out protesting in the streets of Downtown Portland.
Almeida has always admired the American flag. He has 11 flags in his bedroom, and has one more on order. When an individual asked Almeida and Dutch if they would give up their flag to have it burned, the flag-carrying friends said no, and replied that they could burn their own American flag, and Almeida would stay by the group while they did that with their flag. “I’ll protect your right to do that, I’ll stand by you,” he remembered telling the protester.
Almeida said at one point, someone stole his flag and ran off with it.
He has a handmade patch on his backpack that says “Mexican-Americans stand with BLM,” and his friend had already decided they wouldn’t fight to get the flag back if someone tried to take it. They understand the desire to destroy it — because groups like the far-right Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer have been using the flag for what Almeida describes as evil.
“We wanted to have dialogue with people, to not be combative, and calmly explain why we were doing this,” he said.
Almeida is vocal online, and attempts to dialogue with other conservatives about the current protests and movement. He said many conservatives have told him that what he is telling them is very different than messaging they’re receiving elsewhere, which paints a picture of protesters being violent, Marxist anarchists.
Almeida said he tells them the protesters are mainly citizens who are fed up and who support justice reform. He also plans to continue on having more conversations with people at the protests, if they’re willing, about the flag.
“Bipartisanship is getting to a dangerous point, and I am more than ready to take the heeds of insults and vulgarity thrown at me by both sides, in order to go and try instill conversation” he said.
His message about the flag was also picked up by Willamette Week, which ran an interview with Almeida on Aug. 20.
Almeida reflects on the past few weeks, and said he’s begun to see more right side-up American flags.
But, he said the events of this past weekend have undone much of his work.
He said it was “revolting to go and watch these guys rolling up in trucks, just waving their American flags, shooting protesters with paintballs and bear Mace under the flag, just absolutely revolving. Me and my friend Jon Dutch have tried so hard to take the flag and use it for a symbol of good, almost all of that was erased in an hour. It felt like it. It’s not going to stop me.”
While he said he found the caravan’s show “demoralizing,” it also motivates him to carry on.
As Almeida marches with other Black and brown people, waving his flag, he said he has a question for the Republican Party: “You claim that you’re the party that freed the slaves,” he said, “but what you have done lately?”