White People, We Know Those Angry, White Men Carrying Tiki-Torches. We Must Not Be Silent!

White people, it is time for us to have a serious conversation with our families, our friends (past and present), our co-workers, college roommates, high school classmates, sports teammates, our neighbors, our church congregations and youth groups, our fraternity brothers and sorority sisters…this call to action comes from my heart, from the deepest level of compassion I possibly can express. I have no judgment of any of those that might read these words, as most likely I do not know you and you do not know me. All that I kindly ask is that you begin a conversation.

When we see the horrifying pictures of hundreds of young white men (and some women) terrorizing Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend, it is easy for many of us to dismiss these White supremacists as people who we do not know. As if they don’t belong to any family, any church congregation, any college study group, sports team, group of elementary school friends, company or high school class. As if somehow this rally was unique and America has no history of burning torches or burning crosses or White men with hoods and guns. If we are honest, no matter what political party you are affiliated with, you know our painful history, yet somehow we find it is easy to characterize the “protesters” as a small group of hateful men who are diseased by the plague of racism, and we end up posting on our social media accounts hashtags that distance us from them. Especially, us White progressives, we really do not want to believe that we have ever come into contact with any of these angry, White people.

But we know these White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and those who disguise themselves as “Alt-Right” wearing red hats to the rallies.

We know them because, for many of us, who grew up in predominantly white communities, we went to school with those men (and some women) marching with torches. Or even more painful, for some of us they are in our family. Our cousins. Our uncles. Our nephews. Our sons. For some of you, this might feel offensive, because you honestly do not know any angry, racist White people in your family or circle of friends, but for many of us, we do or at least we did growing up. Let’s keep it real. We grew up in small suburban towns and rural areas, where the radicalization can begin.

It begins with complaints about affirmative action, accusations of “reverse racism” and constant claims that people of color and Jews are “taking over our country.” During our high school or college years, we never thought of these people as Nazis or White supremacists, we just thought they were racist or Rush Limbaugh fans. For many young people today, they might be confused as someone who just wears a red hat and posts pepe frog memes on their Instagram. At first we might have brushed it off, but over time we hoped our friends or family members would change, but they didn’t. And it’s painful.

Richard Spencer went to Duke. Jason Kessler went to the University of Virginia. David Duke went to LSU. Steve Bannon went to Georgetown and Harvard. Andrew Breitbart went to Tulane. Not one of these White nationalists went to some off-the-grid school with a whole bunch of other White supremacists. They attended the same schools we did. Grew up in the same towns that we did. Went to the same churches that we did. But, yet somehow we want to say that we don’t know these people?

We know these White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and those who disguise themselves as “Alt-Right” wearing red hats to the rallies.

James Fields, the man who is accused of murdering Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others after ramming his car into a peaceful protest in Charlottesville on Saturday, is said to have been “infatuated with Nazis” during high school, according to his ex-teacher. There is no doubt that he had classmates and friends who also knew he was “infatuated with Nazis.” Who spoke to him? Who radicalized him? Who couldn’t stop him?

The critique that I hear is that it was a small crowd in Charlottesville and there are not that many white people willing to carry a tiki-torch through a small, college town. But, the truth of the matter is, the difference now is that they got an ally in the White House, who speaks the white supremacists’ language and pushes every single racial anxiety “button” that emboldens them to hate even more. In fact, in a 1990 Vanity Fair article, it was reported that Trump’s former wife told her lawyer that Donald kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bed. Furthermore, Trump’s entire campaign was fueled by the ideology of White supremacy and he has now stocked his White House staff with guys like Bannon, Gorka and Miller who pursue hate-filled legislation that is in lock-and-step with very same people marching in the streets of Virginia.So, let us not think for one minute that this thing can’t grow, and can’t grow quick.

Now these Nazis, White Supremacists and red-hat wearing “alt-right” prep boys feel like they can march through our towns with their torches lit and their “heil Hitler” salutes because they know that Trump will hide behind his twitter account. His “many sides” speech empowers them even more, as they know he will will only denounce them when he is forced to, as they all voted for him and make up a loud, vocal part of his base. This is why we cannot be silent.

Of course I believe that a massive majority of White people don’t believe in any of the hate spilled in the streets of Charlottesville. In fact, the White people who were counter-protesting the White supremacists were easily 50:1. It has been inspiring to see so many white people around the country speak out against White Supremacy in the recent days. And of course we must remember that many brave, White Americans sacrificed their lives to defeat Nazi Germany. However, it’s important that us White people don’t pretend that these Nazis or White Supremacists are foreign to us. We must confront them in our families, communities, schools, churches and jobs. And we must confront those who are at the beginning of their radicalization. When you hear things like “affirmative action is reverse racism” or “the Mexicans are taking all of our jobs” or “the holocaust might not have happened,” start a conversation. That conversation might stop your son, your brother, your classmate, your co-worker or your cousin from marching in the streets saluting to Adolf Hitler and saying that they are “helping fulfill the promises” of Donald Trump. Or worse driving their vehicle into a crowd of people and committing an act of domestic terrorism.

Go down your list and reach out to someone today.