It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to show his true colors – or, rather, color – when it comes to white supremacy.
In his responses to the white-supremacist terrorist attack at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump failed to unequivocally condemn the white supremacists and Nazis whose public hate speech and fear tactics were met head-on by fearless anti-racists of all colors and kinds. One anti-racist, a white woman named Heather Heyer, lost her life to a white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd, imitating a tactic used by ISIS terrorists overseas.
Many of us knew that when Trump pledged to “make America great again” in the context of his hate-filled campaign, he meant to make America white again. Now there can be no doubt to anyone paying attention that Trump allies himself with white-supremacists willing to use terror tactics to intimidate and even kill those who oppose their hateful ideology.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reflected the voice of leaders of conscience worldwide when she called the actions of the white supremacists who were coddled by Trump “horrifying and evil.” Trump, by contrast, sounded like a segregationist Southern governor from the 1960s in his incoherent outburst of rage on Tuesday in his expensively vulgar New York City building, giving full-throated support for white segregationists from his presidential platform. He is an abomination who must be shunned and isolated for his reprehensible conduct by his party and by senior leadership across all sectors in our society.
A new culture war erupted when these white supremacists and Nazis, who had been radicalized and organized over the internet, stepped into a public space with torches – pathetically, they were Tiki torches right off the rack at the mall – in deliberate echo of their terrorist forebears, who did their dirty and bloody work in hoods at night. The hoods have come off these white-supremacists and Nazis (who are now being identified from photos and videos and vilified by name by anti-racists). To be clear, that is the nature of culture war here. It is not white versus black, nor goy whites versus blacks and Jews – it is racist versus anti-racist, white-supremacist versus what we take to be the vast majority of Americans who believe potential and intellect are more or less evenly divided among humanity, with disparities coming mostly in access to opportunity, resources and support systems.
To understand the true nature of this culture war – racist versus anti-racist, white-supremacists versus advocates for diversity and equal opportunity – we must each and every one of us, inside and outside of the media, immediately stop using the phrase “alt-right.” There is nothing “alt” or “alternative” about this movement of racists, white supremacists and Nazis. They have the same evil ideology of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis of the previous century. They are using 21st century technology and tactics – tactics borrowed largely from Black Lives Matter, in the century’s greatest irony to date – but they are very typical white supremacists and Nazis in their thinking and intent. To call this movement “alt-right” is to adopt its own wannabe-hip brand, which is to enable them. This must stop now.
And let this, too, be clear: After Charlottesville, there are not “many sides” in this culture war, as Trump said, there are three sides – racists, their silent or escapist enablers, and anti-racists. It is time to pick your side. We believe firmly that potential and intellect are more or less evenly divided among humanity, with the disparities coming mostly in access to opportunity, resources and support systems. We remain committed to protecting our community from attack and working to make resources and support systems more widely available to expand opportunity and develop more of the unrealized potential in our community. We are anti-racists – and we are deeply offended and energized. It is time to stand up and fight this hate head-on.
