Charlottesville Was Not a “Protest Turned Violent,” It Was a Planned Race Riot
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In the case of Charlottesville, media outlets are being careless with words, whitewashing the intentions and the actions of White nationalist protestors.
The “Unite the Right rally” stopped being a rally sometime Friday night when a stream of torch carrying White supremacists arrived at night to the University of Virginia campus chanting “blood and soil.”
They used those torches as weapons in fights with counter-protesters.
On Saturday, NBC said, “Charlottesville rally turned deadly.”
CNN said, “1 dead, 19 injured after crash near Unite the Right rally.”
What took place was not a rally.
Who wears paramilitary gear and carries automatic weapons to a rally?
Who takes shields and helmets and pepper spray and bats and sticks to a rally?
The car didn’t “crash”— it was driven at full speed into a crowd of counter-protesters.
What happened in Charlottesville was White nationalist extremists inciting a riot.
We cannot unite, come together, overcome, Kumbaya, or whatever else, until we get some truth-telling.
Media professionals need to get it right this time.
It is also the responsibility of those of us who are anti-racist not to be silent in this time.
Call out every media outlet that is soft-selling White supremacy and sidestepping the ugly truth.
Nothing less is acceptable.
This milquetoast coverage lets White nationalists off the hook, even when the dithering commentary comes from President Trump.
His statement about being against violence “on many sides” stopped short of calling out the domestic terrorism of the White men who carried out acts of violence on American citizens today.
Walking away when you’re asked if you denounce these actors is the definition of cowardice.
Trump managed to anger both “sides,” Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as well as anti-racists.
What side are you on?
Are you on the side that makes excuses for and sanitizes these acts and actors by calling them misunderstood Americans, the “alt” right, misguided, upset, fringe, and whatever other name might diminish the outright terrorism these people are perpetrating.
Or are you on the side that calls **** on anti-Black, anti-Native, anti-Jewish racism, bigotry, and xenophobia—and the White supremacist domestic terrorists who marched on Charlotte to shed some blood.