Charlottesville

The events that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend were an explosion of tensions that have been building in our country for years. At this point, do I need to explain what happened on those two days? It is something that has been talked about by media outlets, public figures, and videos of the riots have gone viral on Twitter and Facebook. The President has held three press conferences to discuss Charlottesville and there is not one comment section on any news outlet�s Facebook page that doesn�t have a commenter talking about it. I think it would be a waste of time to go into everything that happened on those two days.

            Instead, I want to focus on the response to the event which has left me more outraged than the event itself. Many people on the right have equated the KKK and neo-Nazis to BLM (Black Lives Matter) and ANTIFA (an anti-fascist organization) which is ridiculous. Many have also blamed former President Obama and not President Trump for the riots. This is also ridiculous.

            I will start with the people who have been blaming BLM and ANTIFA for the violence and not the white supremacists and Nazis who were holding torches and clubs chanting, �Jews will not replace us� while performing Nazi salutes. Somehow, by opposing these deeply offensive and unacceptable actions, you are just as bad as the people committing those actions. A white supremacist drove through a crowd of people and killed somebody and other white supremacists celebrated her death. James Fields, a KKK leader in North Carolina who said, �I�m sorta glad that them people got hit and I�m glad that girl died.�

            Yet, somehow the victims of that terror attack have been equated with the terrorists. And it�s not just Facebook commenters who feel this way, the President himself agrees. He blamed the �alt-left� (not a thing) for the violence on Saturday. When asked if he thought that the �alt-left� was as bad as the white supremacists he said, �You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent.�

            I don�t really know how to respond to this. Our President has equated two very different groups; two groups with different rhetoric and much different tactics. Black Lives Matter was founded in 2012 following the murder of Trayvon Martin. The officer, George Zimmerman, was not held accountable. Black Lives Matter was founded in response to police brutality. The KKK was formed in response to slaves being granted equality by the government after the Civil War. One organization is based on equality and the other is based on oppression. Black Lives Matter holds protests and rallies to promote it�s message and create change. The KKK uses intimidation and violence to strike fear in people that they hate. They are not equally violent.

            Another popular type of comment I have been seeing recently are the one�s blaming President Obama for these riots and that he was silent when BLM �terrorized cops� and �promoted violence.� In fact, Obama was not silent in response to those events. After being briefed about the cop killings in Dallas last year when a sniper killed 5 Dallas police officers Obama stated, �There has been a vicious, calculated, and despicable attack on our law enforcement.� That was not silence. That was a clear condemnation of an extremist�s actions. President Trump could not do the same when faced with the actions of extremists this weekend when he blamed all sides and could not condemn the white supremacists until two days later.

            Commenters everywhere have also been blaming Obama for making race relations so bad and causing these riots. However, David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK, said on Saturday that, �We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump� because he said we are going to take our country back and that�s what we gotta do.�

In my opinion, I don�t think either Barack Obama or Donald Trump hold any responsibility for what happened last weekend. There is a faction of Trump supporters that finds a way to blame Barack Obama for the failures of President Trump, which is fallacious. I could spend days taking down their argument that Obama is somehow to blame for every issue in our country, but I don�t have the time or motivation. And I doubt most of the people doing the blaming would actually listen to what I said (or be able to read).

It�s pretty easy to condemn white supremacy and Nazism. However, we�ve reached the point in our country where not even our President can defend the people protesting against those supremacists and Nazis. The light that is America is dimming and it�s hard to tell if we still live in America because it is starting to look like Germany in the 1930�s. That�s all for this week. There will be a surprise on Friday, so be on the lookout for that.