My reflections on Charlottesville, one week after.
Somehow I didn’t think this latest manifestation of hate would come by torchlight — torches carried by young men who otherwise live by the blue light of cell phones — no doubt early adopters of the latest technological tools. Yet here were these 2017 torchbearers raising the same old-fashioned instruments of hatred which, just a few decades ago, lighted untold numbers of lynchings and cross burnings.
These modern marchers came unhooded. Angry faces clearly framed by the flickering light — proud to be acknowledged as the vanguard of the Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and white nationalists. Peter Cvjetanovic doubled down after he was identified from his photo standing front and center. He told the Reno (Nevada) Gazette Journal he would “defend tooth and nail my views as a white nationalist.”
Charlottesville, Virginia wasn’t your grandfather’s race riot, and yet it was. The same rage and resentment from the organizers and their followers, the same venomous targeting of non-whites (particularly African-Americans), the same anti-Semitic slurs. Tragically, it has also meant the same deaths of innocents — like Heather Heyer, mowed down while standing up against historic terror writ new.
And yet, I know Charlottesville is nothing new, and that what it represents has long been just beneath the surface. What happened in Charlottesville was bolstered by a refreshed, re-energized white supremacy. A white supremacy which has been emboldened by a racially divisive time, and by a commander in chief whose responses — belated and otherwise — are an overt embrace.
Most scary to me — to see the old racist rants spewed from the mouths of mostly young men. Again, history serves — are they the re-envisioning of the brown shirts? These newest storm troopers who found common ground and each other via the Internet, they represent relatively small numbers of self-identified white nationalists. But, it is alarming to note the nationwide college campus tours where they have gathered new converts to their cause. I don’t want the future these young men hope to create.
But, I do want to see a young Heather Heyer remembered for more than a moment. I do want to see others inspired by her commitment to anti-racism, expressed in her final Facebook post: “If you are not outraged,” she wrote, “you are not paying attention.” At least in these still raw moments, a nation is paying attention — to the carved symbols of a hateful heritage, to the words of the president, who faults "both sides" for the deliberate attack which ended Heather’s life, and to political leaders who have said nothing.
In an emotional eulogy, Susan Bro, Heather’s mother, urged mourners to unite: “I want this to spread," she said, “this is just the beginning of Heather’s legacy.” But, in this ongoing struggle for the American conscience, there is work to be done, and Boston may be uniquely positioned to lead. Who better than a city trying to work through its own racist demons? Rejecting a so-called freedom of speech rally and preparing to repair the shattered Holocaust memorial — again. Mr. President, there are not two sides, only the right side of history. Heather Heyer knew there was too much at stake to stay on the sidelines. We can only protect the America we say we believe in by doing as much.
