Last week, the largest White Nationalist (Klu Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis. Let’s stop these nice name games) march in the history of the United States occurred in Charlottesville, VA. They were met with resistance from Antifa (Anti-Facist – using violence to stop hatred) protestors. Needless to say, things got ugly quick. Protestors from both sides clashed in a volatile display of emotions. James Fields, a protestor with the one of the White Nationalist groups, took matters into his own hands by running over Antifa protesters killing Heather Heyer, and injuring multiple more.
The response these past week has been nothing short of astounding. Political pundits, mainstream media, and social media have been engrossed in this tragedy. It’s almost to the point of overexploited. Others have been quiet. Really quiet. It’s quite telling. I’ll get to that in a minute. Myself? I’ve been sitting back and watching. Reading. Observing. Forming my opinion. I’ve had a lot of time to think. I see a level of anger I have never seen in the U.S.
Not in my lifetime.
What I find to be interesting in all of this are those that are quiet. Their silence is telling, and I’ll tell you why.
My Facebook timeline blew up during Ferguson, Baltimore, Standing Rock, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, etc. I heard, “I don’t support their cause because they didn’t do it the right way. There’s no need for violence.” I kept hearing how Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group. I mean people dove straight in their feelings about these subjects. These same people are DEAD QUIET about Charlottesville. I didn’t see nary a post from these folks disapproving the violence that took place, but they surely are a little surly about these confederate statues being torn down. Infer from that what you will. Does this mean they didn’t disapprove of Charlottesville? No, but I fail to understand how we can accept violence from one side over the other. I find the silence to be terribly hypocritical, and I’m drawn to one conclusion.
You didn’t hate the violence of the Ferguson and Baltimore riots. You hated the reasons behind the violence. Justice and equality.
You didn’t agree with the cause, and you used rioting as a reason to keep yourself from listening to legitimate gripes. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what we think. Especially when genuine experiences refute our thought process. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I think it’s time we looked at ourselves and made a righteous judgment. If violence is wrong, then it’s wrong for everybody. Period. Unfortunately, we have too many people in the country yelling “WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SIDE?!” That’s from the top down (I’m talking to you 45).
We can blame mainstream media, government, and societal infrastructures (all of which play their role in keeping division). At the end of the day, it’s up to people to create change. Right now, the state of the union needs to be addressed. The address?
The world is watching, America. We need to mind how we act, and clean up our hearts.
A Fresh Voice 