Racists in Broad Daylight
People of color weren’t surprised by Charlottesville because we aren’t exactly brand new when it comes to racism in America. But there was one aspect to this weekend’s events that I found novel, or at least hadn’t seen in awhile: it was the fact that these racists weren’t afraid to show their faces.
Back in my day, racists had the good taste and common sense to hide their identities under hoods, or have their faces and voices altered when they were interviewed for TV. When I was growing up, being an avowed racist wasn’t cool. Sure, you’d have your David Dukes and Pat Buchanans pop out of the woodwork on occasion, but for the most part racists stayed hidden under the floorboards like the cockroaches they are.
This isn’t to say racists ever went away, or that we didn’t have them in public institutions like the government — those racists just knew well enough to keep up the pretense, flimsy though it may be, that they weren’t racist. Even that sort of plausible deniability is enough for most Americans.
But the Nazis on parade in Charlottesville proudly shouted the Nazi slogans. They proudly wore the Nazi regalia. (They also carried Tiki torches, which is a bit of an ideological disconnect given their Polynesian origins.) And they didn’t bother with all that concealing your identity nonsense.
As I watched them on TV this weekend, I was reminded of racists from earlier generations, the ones from my grandfather’s time and the times before that. The ones that weren’t embarrassed or afraid to exercise their racism, because why should they be? The ones who posed and smiled for photos around lynched black bodies without fear of reprisal. The ones that, with total impunity and immunity, murdered black men and boys for slights against white women, whether they were perceived or actual.
And why should today’s racists feel bashful? For the first time in what must seem like forever to them, they have staunch allies at the highest levels in this country. It’s a hell of a lot easier to feel assured in your racism when you have allies like Sessions, Bannon and Miller on your side. Not to mention a president who blanches when phrases like “white nationalism” are hurled at him, and who is strangely milquetoast when it comes to repudiating it. Trump’s reticence in calling white nationalism by its true name has done nothing to comfort the country but has done everything to encourage white nationalists in thinking their views have gone mainstream.
Of course, some Charlottesville Nazis were chagrined when they got doxxed over the weekend. As of this writing, at least one of them has been fired from his job and several, if not dozens more, will likely follow. Under normal conditions, this would be a problem for them — however, under our current abnormal conditions they can rest assured that the Justice Department will have their back. Another throwback special for racists: legal justice just like their racist grandpappys enjoyed it.
The maleficent minds behind the Charlottesville march have already indicated that they have plans to visit other cities in the near future. This will provide more opportunities for them to broadcast their hateful ideology and for the president to once again grow mealy mouthed when addressing it. I guess this is what they meant when they said they’d make America great again.
