Who is the “we” Response
I can very clearly recall hearing about what happened in Charlottesville as a twelve or thirteen year old back in 2017. Even while my knowledge and understanding of white supremacist groups was quite limited, there were still thoughts in my head that played on replay as I watched the terror unravel before my eyes on national television: How can such a foul group of racists still persevere to this day? Why are they so eager to inflict pain on innocent people? Why does a person think like this?
Those questions are just as prevalent to me now as they were then. While there are varying factors in the modern day that cause acts of violence from white supremacist groups to be more frequented, I think it's worth noting that these groups never went away for a period of time, and then returned. They've always been here, in the root of the United States, as this country was founded on the principles of racism, and it is reflected in the mentalities of its citizens. I think as of now, these violent attacks are occurring as a result of people having access to any like-minded people around the world. With one click of button, people can connect themselves to an abundance of anonymous others who share the same political, economic and social opinions. White supremacists no longer need to be inconvenienced with gathering in secret, rather they can keep in touch through various social media platforms and websites. In addition to this, the four year presidency of Donald Trump played a huge role in the way that these groups present themselves today, as he offered them an opening to hate freely and publicly without fear of persecution or consequence. Trump single-handedly turned the white supremacist movement into some morphed source of pride, continually refusing to fully condemn their actions and beliefs.
I would describe the phenomenon in Charlottesville as a bizarre mix of desperation on both ends. On one hand, many of these white supremacists don't live in luxury, in fact the majority of them are somewhat poor and have been through the criminal system. Therefore, their racial beliefs are the only thing that provide them with the assurance that there are others who are inferior to them. With the rise of movements such as BLM, groups felt their status threatened, and acted accordingly. On the opposite side of the spectrum, people from the left feel a desperation to put an end to racism in America and the heinous hate crimes that coincide with it. These groups couldn’t be more apart from each other, and yet their strong senses of correctness clashed both of them together in the incident of Charlottesville.
This incident acts as an example of the toxic categorization that frequently occurs in America. People’s insistence on placing others in boxes fuels the philosophy of extremist groups, who base their entire knowledge on every person of the same ethnic background beingof the same caliber. These right winged groups place huge sums of people in the same box solely based on their race, a fact which is terrifying considering the violence that they wish to inflict upon said groups. Categorization not only enables white supremacist groups, it encourages them.