(Robin) Omowale Adewale, an activist,
MMA fighter, and vegan nutrition writer,
whose strong, black fists were unknowingly
turned against his own country.
(chuckles)
I watch way too much "Law & Order."
Tell me about your story. It's crazy.
I get contacted all the time by doing self-defense classes.
And that's something that I was already doing
and, uh, gentleman by the name of Taylor
contacted me and he said he was from Black Fist.
(phone ringing)
So this guy Taylor just calls you out of the blue.
No, actually, he contacted me via Instagram first.
(phone chimes)
He told me that Black Fist was an organization
that was training black community
to prevent police brutality.
(Robin) Wait, there's a self-defense move you can do
when you're face-down on the concrete?
It didn't look shady. You were getting paid.
They paid me $320 via PayPal.
Well, that sounds legit.
Exactly, it must be official.
(Robin) Little did Omowale know
he was officially being played...
by the Russians.
For more, I turned to Congressman Adam Schiff.
He's not just some dude
on the House Intelligence Committee,
he's the dude.
Black Fist was a social media campaign by the Russians.
The broader purpose was to communicate
to African Americans, you need to be afraid.
Were they wrong?
They're not wrong about that.
But the Russians do not have our best interests at heart.
They created their own fake pages
to scare and frighten African Americans about cops
and frighten cops about African Americans.
Some of the fake accounts would try to get people
to join protests,
and then the Russians would send RT,
their news arm, to cover the protest.
Many of them targeted people who had shown
an interest in Martin Luther King
or Black Panthers,
people who search for Freddie Gray.
(Robin) Look at Russia,
targeting black communities faster than gentrification.
So how many classes did you actually do?
Dozens of classes.
Oh, okay, and these are like, like buff dudes,
like really strong fighters?
♪♪
No, really, um, beginners.
Wow. Yeah.
Men and women, some kids.
Kids?! Yeah.
All types of races and--
Wait, I'm sorry. You had white people
come into a class called Black Fist?
(chuckles) Right, right, right.
Taylor insisted on getting pics and videos.
Pics or it didn't happen.
And they edited out anyone who wasn't black.
(Robin) Now, who was this mystery creep
thirsting for pictures of black people working out?
The only clue he left was a voicemail.
When you talked to Taylor on the phone,
did he sound black? Taylor sounded black.
He sounded like he was from Africa.
Motherland black.
Wow.
Late April was the last time he ever contacted me.
The account on Instagram just disappeared.
Did you try to call Taylor?
I did call Taylor and he just didn't pick up.
(line ringing)
You really got ghosted. I did.
How did that feel?
Uh, it felt like, uh,
Black Fist might have been fake.
(Robin) This is insane.
Black Fist is the longest con since white Jesus.
Why would Russians go through all this,
to create Black Fist, a self-defense group
for black people?
When we look at American society,
one of the most radioactive elements has been race
and African Americans' response to racism.
And if it's something that can create, uh,
riots in Ferguson
or recrimination in Baltimore,
if you were an adversary of the United States,
that would be exactly what you would try to manipulate.
♪♪
(Robin) Wait, the Russians didn't just create Black Fist
to deceive one vegan fighter.
I needed to find out.
Who else were they playing?
And that is when I struck gold.
My name's Eddie Goldman.
I do a podcast and a blog called "No Holds Barred."
Okay, so you had someone from Black Fist
on your podcast, and what was his name?
Guy named Jackob Johnson was the name that he gave me.
Now, I have some audio from your podcast.
Can I just play that? Sure.
When I heard that on your podcast,
I thought it sounded familiar.
Same guy that called himself Jackob Johnson.
Same guy.
(Robin) And if that wasn't enough proof,
the phone numbers for Taylor and Jackob are the same.
I know what I have to do.
It's time to call two birds with one phone.
(line ringing)
Answer!
(line ringing)
How are you a hacker and you're not answering your phone?
Ooh, hello?
Nope, still ringing.
(line ringing)
(yawns)
Any minute now.
(busy signal)
Man, all that buildup for nothing?
I feel manipulated.
I feel like Omowale.
You felt like you were doing something good,
it sounds like. Of course.
I'm just a local guy, you know,
that really just wants to do right in his community.
And so, uh, people took advantage of that.
The end result of this is, you make it more difficult
for African-American activists to advance legitimate causes.
But that's not personal.
It's just an American weakness
and, you know, an adversary would exploit a weakness.
(Robin) Damn, so the Russians are weaponizing
one of America's most plentiful resources--
racism.
(Jelani) One of the most radioactive elements...
radioactive elements, radioactive elements...
(Robin) And while our country may not be able
to stop Russia from taking shots at us,
we can sure as hell stop giving them so much ammo.
Because until we kick white supremacy to the curb,
Russia can still turn even the most woke
into double agents.
(speaking Russian)