This Does Not Have to Be Our Legacy

Thoughts on the Violence in Charlottesville

Everything I attempt to write or say feels empty.

As someone whose entire life is centered around and dedicated to words, it’s hard for me to condemn them (especially here, on the same pages that I write on). I do believe, and continue to believe, that words are powerful and can change the world. But they are not enough on their own.

I am full of the distance which privilege creates, and nothing that I can say or do will ever close that distance. I would like to think, if I was in Charlottesville, that I would be there, putting myself, my physical body as well as my mind, on the front lines in the fight for justice in this country. But I don’t know that. We are all human, we all fear.

My sister attends the University of Virginia. My baby sister could have been in that crowd. I honestly think, if this happened during the regular semester, she would have been. That driver, taking lives like they were nothing, letting a difference of opinion (not strong enough: letting hatred, blind hatred) justify death is just so far past my comprehension. He could have killed my sister.

He didn’t know who he killed, didn’t care — I can’t even imagine being in the state of mind where your only goal is that someone else dies. He succumbed to the blind rage symptomatic of intense hate, fear and cognitive dissonance. A weakness I cannot (and, anyway, it is not my place to) forgive. As the Mayor of Ithaca, New York said this morning, “The Klan is marching in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. Without hoods. They feel that their opinion is now politically safe.”

I watched several livestreams to follow the events of the protest. White supremacists yelled (presumably at black American counter-protesters) “go back to Africa” and that they, the white supremacist protesters, were there to “defend their ancestors.” They waved their Confederate flags and screamed obscenities in a defiance of a culture that they see as changing too rapidly, and as squelching their freedom to express their culture. These white supremacists were today, and continue to be emboldened by the current political climate (which is not speculation: many were still yelling “lock her up,” a hangover rallying cry from the 2016 presidential election, and many more were sporting “Make America Great Again” hats).

I am a Southerner. I have no problem completely and irrevocably denouncing the legacy of the Confederacy, built on slavery and the continued inequalities, rooted and insidious in our economic, social, and legal systems, defined along racial lines. This Southern culture, these ancestors those protesters today claimed to protect, is not what we have to be. Any culture that comes at that high of a price is not worth it. Luckily, celebrating Southern culture does not have to be about maintaining the oppressive power structures it was formed under.

Our culture does not have to uphold this legacy, but in tying white supremacy to our culture, you are not preserving it, you are drowning it with your own hands. It is critical that we not make the mistake of conflating a political issue with a moral one. As James Baldwin would say, that is a “death of the heart” in this country which we cannot survive.

We make choices, every day, about what we accept in our lives and in our communities. Our hands are not tied here. We decide what we become in this country from now on, and always.

The words of Cameron Awkward-Rich, whose poem captures the rare opportunity that these open moments of violence and hatred bring us, resonate loudly today:

We are frustrated, and it is easy, seeing this violence, to feel powerless. We are all hurt in this. But now that we see this bald face, what will we do about it?

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Courtesy of Sara Benincasa today, here is a list of helpful resources, which can direct you to organizations doing meaningful work in the Charlottesville community. It’s a small thing, but collective good is made of small things: https://medium.com/@SaraJBenincasa/what-to-do-about-charlottesville-dfc7d6636d56.

Related posts:

If you are a Windows 11 user, you may have already experienced a system problem/error or you may experience it in the future. For these cases in which your Windows 11 operating system does not work…

We are proud to announce Haru, a trusted digital asset investment platform, as we expand our business model to offer simple, profitable asset management to all levels of investors. Up to this date…

Dental emergencies can happen to anyone, at any time. Whether it’s a painful toothache, a knocked-out tooth, or a broken dental crown, these situations can be frightening and overwhelming. It’s…