Charlottesville

In Massive ‘Outpouring Of Solidarity,’ Thousands Rally For Charlottesville

August 15, 2017 Jake Johnson, www.commondreams.org Resist! Charlottesville, Racism, Rally, White Supremacy

By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams - "Tonight, we mourn. Tomorrow, we continue to fight, harder than ever." Thousands of Americans in cities across the country rallied Sunday night to denounce the racism displayed at the so-called "Unite the Right" rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, and to mourn the death of Heather Heyer, an activist who was killed Saturday during an anti-racist demonstration. "This attack is a reminder of the nation's darkest heritage; the outpouring of solidarity following is a reminder of its best." —Ben Wikler, MoveOn.orgJames Alex Fields Jr.—who was charged with second-degree murder after he plowed his car into a crowd of demonstrators, killing Heyer and injuring around two dozen others—has been characterized by one of his former teachers as a Nazi sympathizer. Following the deadly attack, activist groups mobilized rapidly, planning vigils and "Solidarity with Charlottesville" events throughout the nation. According to a map Indivisible shared with Vox, nearly 700 events were scheduled in a matter of hours.

Leader Behind White Supremacist Rally Literally Chased Out Of Town

August 14, 2017 Kyle Neubeck, www.complex.com Resist! Charlottesville, Racism, Virginia, White Nationalism, White Supremacy

By Kyle Neubeck for Complex - Watching a small, violent group of white supremacists storm through Charlottesville, Virginia was a painful reminder of just how deeply entrenched racism is in America. But even in these moments of darkness, there can be triumph of the human spirit, where your fellow countrymen remind you there are good people out there after all. As it turns out, you didn't even have to leave Charlottesville to get that reminder this weekend. Jason Kessler, the organizer for the rally in Virginia this weekend, held a press conference on Sunday afternoon, ostensibly to try to salvage whatever screwed-up purpose he thought the rally might have to begin with. And then something amazing happened—the city of Charlottesville told him collectively to get the hell out. Giving him the Game of Thrones treatment, locals harassed Kessler with chants of "Shame!" as he approached his podium, not letting him off the hook for the death of Heather Heyer, who was murdered by a driver that aimed his car at a group of counter-protesters Saturday.

Charlottesville Was Not A “Protest Turned Violent”

August 14, 2017 Zenobia Jeffries, www.yesmagazine.org Educate! Charlottesville, KKK, Virginia, White Nationalism

By Zenobia Jeffries for Yes! Magazine - In July of last year, after The New York post ran the headline, “CIVIL WAR: Four cops killed at anti-police protest,” I wrote the column “How We Report on Structural Racism Can Hurt Us—Or Heal Us.” I could have easily written the same article today. That column recalled the Kerner Report, the findings of President Johnson’s commission investigating the uprisings that occurred throughout 1967, to determine what happened and why, and to provide recommendations to prevent them from happening again. While reading and watching the news stories unfolding from the college town of Charlottesville, Virginia, what I and many others are calling White nationalist race riots, I couldn’t help but recall the Kerner Report again. A fundamental criticism in the report was that news media had failed to analyze and report adequately on the many incidents of racial injustice in the United States. The report noted that the social ills, challenges, and grievances African Americans face were “seldom conveyed.” In considering the history of racism in this country, they wrote, “By and large, news organizations have failed to communicate to both their Black and White audiences a sense of the problems America faces and the sources of potential solutions.

Welcoming The Fascists To Charlottesville

August 11, 2017 David Swanson, www.davidswanson.org Resist! Charlottesville, Fascism, Racism

By David Swanson for Let's Try Democracy - I have mixed emotions about the fact that I’ll be missing the latest big fascism rally here in Charlottesville, because I’ll be elsewhere participating in kayak trainings for an upcoming Flotilla to the Pentagon for Peace and the Environment. I’m delighted to miss the fascism and the racism and the hatred and the gun-toting lunacy. I’m sorry to miss being here to speak against it. I’m hopeful that there might be something resembling a disciplined nonviolent and nonhateful opposition presence, but strongly suspect that a small number of violent and hateful opponents of racism will ruin that. I’m thrilled that taking down a racist war monument has gone mainstream. I’m depressed that, even though the legal delay in taking it down is based on its being a war monument, one side wants it down for being racist, the other side wants it up for being racist, and everybody is perfectly happy to pack the town with war monuments. I dread the possibility of hearing that the racists again chanted “Russia is our friend!” meaning that they believe without evidence that Russia corrupted the U.S. election and they are grateful for it, but I’m hopeful that they have moved on to other bizarre chants — though my hope is minimal that anyone might chant “Russia is our friend” and mean by it that they’d like to build peace and friendship between Americans and Russians.

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