Six Things You Can Do After White Supremacy Attacks in Charlottesville
This article originally appeared in Lauren O’Neill’s newsletter, Activism for Non-Activists . Reprinted here with permission.
Here are six actions to take on neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. 1. Make a donation to one or more of the following:
- C-ville Victim Relief GoFundMe for medical and other expenses affected by James Alex Fields, who killed Heather Heyer and injured about 20 people in his car
- GoFundMe covers medical expenses for Dre Harris, a black man severely beaten by white supremacists.
- Charlottesville NAACP Branch
- Charlottesville chapter in Black Lives Matter
- Charlottesville chapter in Speech for Racial Justice (SURJ)
- IMPACT Cville (interfaith pro-social justice organization)
2. Attend any anti-racism / solidarity rallies in your area. To find them, visit the Indivisible website or google Charlottesville Solidarity Rally [your city]. 3. Be prepared to protest any upcoming neo-Nazi / white supremacist / alternative right rallies in your area. Information on counter-protests can be found on the websites of organizations such as Indivisible , SURJ, and DSA .
4. Support and / or volunteer with the head of Virginia Change. The registration deadline for elections in Virginia is approaching October (that is, in a couple of months). Registering more voters is not just a way to switch to blue and pick the best politicians who can achieve specific progressive goals. He also directly combats the Republican strategy of deprivation of electoral rights of voters , especially color . Republicans spend so much time, money, and effort suppressing the vote because they know that voting is a powerful tool. Let’s make sure the people of Virginia really have the right to use this tool the way they are supposed to in a democracy.
5. Don’t allow yourself to deny what is happening. It is now very easy to look at groups of white supremacists marching with Nazi flags, giving Nazi salutations and chanting Nazi slogans, and just mentally check, because it is too complicated and it does not affect you directly. It is very easy to see how Trump, who viciously insulted virtually every other group and individual imaginable, refuses to openly condemn neo-Nazi violence and thinks, “The President of the United States can not be truly pro-Nazi, can he? ? “Please don’t, especially if you’re white.” When you deny and say something like, “Oh, they don’t really mean it, they’re just trying to shock people,” or “These people are on the sidelines, they cannot do that much harm,” you do exactly what white supremacists want. (In fact, here’s a screenshot of them talking directly about it.) 6. In your social circles and on social media, make it clear that you consider yourself a white supremacist shameful, unacceptable and unforgivable. Say loudly and proudly that you are against white supremacy, neo-Nazis, KKK and the alternative right. Say it’s embarrassing that Trump won’t judge them. Memorialize and honor Heather Heyer, who gave her life to protest them. Judging from the above screenshot , neo-Nazis deliberately try to keep their real goals a secret so as not to scare off normal people. They are afraid that public opinion will turn against them. So turn public opinion against them.
Lauren O’Neill is a freelance writer, senior editor at Midnight Breakfast, and co-host of the Sunday School Dropouts podcast . Her work has been featured in publications such as Slate, The New Inquiry, and the LA Review of Books. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal .