Kelly Fryer: Why only whites were surprised by Charlottesville's neo-Nazi rally

[sheshe2]

In response to the events in Charlottesville, where three people were killed at a white supremacy rally, former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick posted on Facebook that this “is not the country I grew up in.” Sen. Jeff Flake tweeted that what happened “does not reflect the values of the America I know.”

There was a time when I would have said the same thing.

I was wrong.

Charlottesville is not an aberration from the American story. It’s at the very center of our story, along with the genocide of indigenous peoples, a legal system that gave white men the right to rape black women and sell off their children, the internment of Japanese citizens, a for-profit prison system that has re-enslaved people of color, a relentless assault on voting rights, and the inhumane detainment, deportation and death of refugees and migrants.

Our story is white people carrying Nazi flags and semi-automatic weapons in public, unhindered by law enforcement, while unarmed Native Americans protecting their own water and lands at Standing Rock are fire-hosed in sub-freezing temperatures.

Our story is 1,500 mostly white Tucsonans blocking traffic as they march against racism without permission but with assistance from local police, while the mostly brown people who peacefully marched for immigrant rights in February were pepper-sprayed by members of that same police department.

Read More:http://tucson.com/opinion/local/kelly-fryer-why-only-whites-were-surprised-by-charlottesville-s/article_6c868585-878a-5ff8-8ed5-109a46239d83.html

So sad...but so true.

[dalton99a]

1. Great piece.

[gordianot]

2. What does surprise me is the white Nazi youth movement.

That they exist no shock but the young people involved and have so easily bought into the lies is not good.

[bluepen]

3. Here's a great feature article on this topic.

The writer refers to them as "the lost boys of America's new right." Interesting exploration of how and why this type of movement attracts young males.

---

Have you heard the one about the boy who cried Fake News?

This is a story about truth and consequences. It’s a story about who gets to be young and dumb, and who gets held accountable. It’s also a story about how the new right exploits young men — how it preys not on their bodies, but on their emotions, on their hurts and hopes and anger and anxiety, their desperate need to be part of a big ugly boys’ own adventure.

...

Yes, these are little boys playing games with the lives of others. That doesn’t excuse the horror of the game for one second. It makes it worse. Much worse, in fact. They are children who have the privilege of that particular innocence that involves never learning from their mistakes, never taking responsibility, never worrying that their sins will be unforgiven. In the Peter Pan stories, Peter and the Lost Boys remain children by deliberately forgetting all their adventures — including the ones where they hunted all those Indians. These boys will be allowed to forget everything but their own immediate feelings for as long as society allows them, and this society allows straight white boys to dodge personal and emotional responsibility until at least the age of 70. The current man-child president would be Exhibit A, but not every lost boy gets a golden throne. In this culture war, most of them are cannon fodder.

https://psmag.com/news/on-the-milo-bus-with-the-lost-boys-of-americas-new-right

[sheshe2]

7. "The lost boys of America's new right."

Thanks for posting this, bluepen, the article is absolutely on target.

[bluepen]

10. You're very welcome.

I found it very insightful and extremely well-written.

I've watched some of the YouTube and Periscope videos of the so-called "leaders" of these people. Along with being infuriating and horrifying, I also found it rather pathetic that some of these "boys" are in their late twenties and in some cases, thirties.

So they're never going to grow up. They are angry, reactionary, and quite simply forever lost.

This is an extremely dangerous portion of our population. It's relatively small, for now, but something else I noticed was the live comments (on Periscope). Hundreds of young males responding positively to the hate, conspiracy theories, and endless BS. They are primed for radicalization. I hope the FBI is watching.

[heaven05]

4. truth to the racist

Ms. Fryer speaks words of truth....hope she's locked and loaded. She is dealing with a bunch that see her as the weaker sex, I see her as the stronger human being among the weaker segment of human beings, the racist ignorant.

[sheshe2]

6. I too see her as the stronger human being, heaven.

Our strength is in our numbers.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. Women of all creeds and colors have been speaking about much of this...

.....for a long time.
Well, except for the evangelical CONservative creed....

But otherwise, women know. Women know what harms others and we have always been the first to recognize it.

And IF our lives mattered, that article would have included the terrorist murders and disruption at women's health clinics, and the red state legislatures taking away access, and forcing us to carry pregnancies resulting from rape, incest or plain old, common lies ("I love you, baby&quot , and the prosecutions against us for miscarriage.

[Eliot Rosewater]

12. I hope Rachel is and Lawrence is too. They are all in great danger, and I hope to fuck

they are guarded well.

After tomorrow, when trump will purposely pardon Arpaio in a loud, obnoxious in-your-face way to try and spark a civil war, my fear is our great journalists and pundits will be in danger.

I know you are, I am, we all are but the more obvious ones I worry about, like the authors of these articles mentioned here.

[heaven05]

14. I guess historically people like you and I

have been in danger more or less, depending on country and leader. Just happen to live in a time when true dyed in the wool racists are running-administering our nation, laws and courts....lucky us...

[SunSeeker]

5. K & R

[apkhgp]

8. Hate rallies

Hate rallies where ever they are held are not the direction this country needs to go in. People say you learn from history. Well these freaks have not learned a damn thing. They are totally oblivious to what there actions are doing. Causing turmoil between ethnicities. They are not going to get what they want.

[sheshe2]

9. Agree, apkhgp.

If you have the time read post #3, bluepen posted a great article.

Peace~

[Caliman73]

13. It is baked into the Apple Pie.

Sorry to say, but there are a lot of things you don't have to see when you are White, that you do not notice or attribute to the color of anyone's skin, but that does not mean it does not exist. I am glad that his White woman is realizing it and speaking out. Maybe more White people noticing this is the good that comes out of this horrific mess.

It has been over 150 years since the Civil War, 150 years since it became illegal to own Black people as property. Think about that! Only 50 since the Civil Rights Acts (which we have seen eroded), less than 50 since miscegenation laws were repealed on a national level. And there is backlash against, "losing our culture and history". Bullshit! It's not my history or my culture.

Whether I wanted to or not, I've always been aware of the color of my skin and my surname. I have always been aware that people don't think I am from where I am from, or that they don't accept it. White Supremacist marches don't surprise me at all.

I know that not all White people are racist or prejudiced. I can accept that the vast majority are good people just trying to live their daily lives. However, it is frustrating when you share your experience and people don't believe you. They don't want to accept that systems of White Supremacy still exist and guide everyone's actions. I have family members who accept it. They say, well that guy (Black or Brown) shouldn't have been resisting, or hanging out on that corner, or whatever; not even stopping to think that White kids doing the same thing might get a suggestion to be on their way, if even that for the same behavior. A fish doesn't understand that it is in water but the aquatic mammal sure does. To a fish, the water is normal, it is life. To the mammal, we live in it, we work in it, it is home, but we sure do know that we do not belong in it completely.