Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past week, you know that Charlottesville laid host to Nazi and Klu Klux Klan sympathizers during an “Alt-Right,” rally that protested the removal of a confederate statue. A young girl was killed by a radicalized right winged American, and more were senselessly beaten and injured. But for what seemed to be the first time, many of those that had chosen to ignore the surge of white supremacy in the Trump administration finally started to understand that Nazism and the KKK are still prominent.
This is domestic terrorism. There is no way to work around that. No matter what narratives your favorite Fox News correspondent tries to tell you about their “Alt-Left,” and “AntiFa,” rallying points, it’s terrorism. And this isn’t even a political thing either. Regardless of whether you are a conservative, liberal, or anything in between, Nazism and racism in America should upset you. And rather than cave in and admit that maybe they were wrong, the conservative media continues to lash out against their opposition. But we’re the snowflakes that run to safe spaces still, right?
And now, as Nazi’s and white nationalists roam the streets unhinged and undenounced by the President, the conversation on Charlottesville has shifted towards the removal of the 1500 confederate monuments in the United States. We actually have to debate denouncing supremacy and a movement that promoted slavery and catalyzed a war that hosted the largest death toll in U.S. history, in the Civil War. But why? It’s simple, and it’s called patriotism.
The idea of patriotism isn’t radical. Being prideful of one’s country and wanting to do everything possible to improve it isn’t a bad thing. But modern American patriotism is a masked chauvinism and that is where the problem starts. Trump’s campaign message of putting “America First,” helped him rally the largest demographic in the country (uneducated, white, men and women) and propelled him to the Presidency. And that set the stage to also normalize hatred, sexism, racism, and bigotry. That is why whenever a Trump scandal or controversy sheds a national light, it is overlooked by his supporters. Chauvinism has simply consumed America.
There are now a significant number of white Americans that believe they are oppressed when in reality it is far from the truth. They give David Duke a platform once more. And they are widely misguided. Calling for an America that expresses equality and equity doesn’t threaten white people as a whole. White people can still succeed and prosper in an equal American society. The only difference is that their success is not based off, or enhanced by, a system that favors them and oppresses others. And if that is a radical idea, maybe being radical is the right thing.
So what happened in Charlottesville is a product of the current American society. It is a product or normalizing hate and hate speech in the name of personal freedoms. It is a product of failing to denounce Nazism and the Confederacy as the despicable movements they are. And it is a product of pretending that the KKK and white nationalists haven’t been around all along. And now they have a massive platform.
African Americans, LGBT+, women, etc. have been the ones that are truly oppressed all along. Oppression is a foundation of American history and in 2017 it is no different. And that is why having these critical conversations are more crucial than ever. If you are like me, the 42% of white people who voted against Trump, that’s great. But it’s still not enough. You need to do more: Speak out, be the annoying family member that brings politics up at the dinner table, write, donate, volunteer, educate, or whatever you can do. And if you are a minority that today is in utter disgust of what this country looks like, continue to fight for a better future. But the more we stand idle, the more these hate movements develop a platform and gain power in the name of democracy. Be better, America. Charlottesville should’ve never happened, and most certainly should never happen again.
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