By Richard Ray:
Donald Trump the Commander In Least, did his usual poor job of speaking out on social injustice directed at any other group that does not include his base Alt-Right Fox News enthusiasts. A White Supremacist/White Nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia took place in part to protest the impending removal of a Confederate Robert E. Lee statue. There were violent clashes between the White Supremacists and protesters, that included an apparent act of terror in which one of the Supremacists seemed to have intentionally drove into a crowd of protesters killing 1 and injuring at least 15.
Trump did not immediately speak out against the act of violence and when he did he specifically failed to call it an act of terrorism, as he has been so quick to label other similar acts elsewhere (including the Muslim truck driver killing many in a French Bastille Day celebration). I am not sure if the act by the driver was technically domestic terrorism, but it was minimally a hate crime, and yet Trump fell short of denouncing it as such or even addressing the hateful nature of the rally and White Supremacy in general. Any attempts by Trump, which will surely come, to clarify and denounce hateful rhetoric are too late… his purposeful silence on the subject in the moments when the nation needed to hear someone presidential be empathetic to the divineness and horror of such hate inspired violence are dually noted for all posterity.
Trumps ineffectiveness to lead and relate to all people is hardly surprising, but we have come to expect minimal lip service from our politicians to obvious crisis and he failed to even hit the minimums.
I write this as a definitive appeal to all people but especially White people that silence and lip service to pacifying the concerns from POC for the emboldened cries of White Supremacy/White Nationalism is no longer okay… under any circumstance. If you are silent or attempt to pacify our concerns and fears by attempts to placate in hopes of maintaining peace and the status quo, will be seen historically as acceptance and siding with White Supremacists.
No longer can we accept indifference or silence. No longer can we accept political correct lip service in which your actions are not evident and proactive. It is not your sole responsibility, but it is your responsibility to be vocal and speak out against White Supremacy as well as participate in promoting legislation and criminality that extinguishes the voice of any hate in “Our” nation. POC cannot fight this fight alone. Despite our growing numbers, we are not the majority, and we are definitely not controllers of the power structure within the country on Federal, State or local levels.
White Supremacy/White Nationalism promotes domestic terrorism and hate. No matter how you label pride, when it is wrapped in a history of violence and suppression and subjugation of anyone not White is not pride but in fact hate. This is not semantics. This is an important moment in history in which people must take a stand. We cannot allow emboldened racists, fearful of their potential loss of power to bring us back in history. Those days may be remembered fondly for them, but the for the rest of us, the old days are only symbolic of oppression and hate. That definitely will not Make America Great Again.
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#Charlottesville, Virginia, #WhiteSupremacist, #WhiteNationalist, #Nationalists, #Trump, #domesticterrorism, #terrorism
