Thursday, March 1, 2018

Charlottesville: How Far Have We Really Come?


I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Unite the Right rally that occurred last August in Charlottesville.  It began with white nationalists gathering together in protest against the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from Emancipation Park.  The majority of information I gathered is from a video by VICE News Tonight, and I will leave the link to the video at the end of the blog; I encourage those who haven’t seen it to give it a look!
While the protest was about the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue, the white nationalists really wanted to prove that they had a real, physical presence instead of simply being a meme.  The white nationalists were clearly not nonviolent as the United Right speaker Christopher Cantwell stated, “we’re not nonviolent; we’ll F***ing kill these people if we have to” and “I’m trying to make myself more capable of violence.”1 Unfortunately, Cantwell was right that there would be violence as one white nationalist plowed through a group of protesters in a car, injuring many and killing one.  The media and other groups labeled the Unite the Right as white supremacists or nationalist, but with the level of violence they committed and condoned I would call them white terrorists.  Terrorists who believe they “didn’t kill anyone unjustly”, and state how “a lot more people are going to die before we’re done”.1   
Local anti-white supremacy activist Tanesha Hudson said it best when she stated that it was never about a statue, but about people standing for what is wrong.  Another activist named Montae Taylor also had a stimulating perspective on the white nationalists’ protest.  Taylor’s great grandfather used to tell him stories about his experience of racism, and the violence that he faced during civil rights protest.  Taylor found it incredibly appalling to see the violence and hatred his grandfather talked about firsthand.  If you take the time to look at photos of the Charlottesville protest like the photo of the white terrorist hitting nonviolent protesters with a car, then you’ll notice the same aggression of violence seen in photos of the Birmingham protest in 1963.  I don’t think Taylor is wrong to compare the violence seen now to the violence seen during the Civil Rights Movement as they may be more similar than we may want to admit. 
Anti-white nationalist protesters were especially critical of the way president Trump handled the situation, especially when he stated that people were wrong on many sides.  I believe Trump has demonstrated that we cannot remain neutral in this critical moment; we have a moral obligation to fight against racism until freedom from hatred has reached all corners of the United States.

Video






1 Vice, “Charlottesville: Race and Terror— VICE News Tonight on HBO,” YouTube, August 14, 2017,                    Accessed March 01, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrcB1sAN8I.


2 comments:

  1. I agree that this hateful protest was not just about the removal of a statue. The white supremacists had evil and violent intentions that stemmed from their racist and hateful hearts. I was disgusted as I watched the protest on the news, and appalled to see that so many people could act in such a disgraceful way. Their violent actions classified them as terrorists, and they should not be treated otherwise.

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