We need to talk about Charlottesville

I remember waking up that morning on Saturday Aug. 12, 2017 and turning on the television to listen to MSNBC. Right from the start, the news of the day baffled me.The reporter, Joy Reid, explained how the night before, Friday Aug. 11, a group of white supremacists had marched onto the campus of the University of Virginia to protest the state decision to take down the statue of confederate soldier, Robert E. Lee. The video coverage of this event depicted these white supremacists carrying blazing torches and shouting out common Nazi phrases such as, “Blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us!”After witnessing these cruel and racist acts of the white supremacists, I didn’t think that the news could get any worse. However, I was proved to be completely wrong when the report segued into the news of the day. Joy Reid described how a massive group of people in Charlottesville, Virginia joined up to march that day, on Saturday, Aug. 12, to protest against the white supremacists and express their beliefs concerning freedom and basic human rights. I remember that Reid was interviewing one of the organizers of the counter-protest, when all of a sudden, chaos ensued.The woman Reid was interviewing was pushed roughly out of the way, and the cameraman was clearly pushed around as well because the image on the video coverage on my screen was dizzying and choppy. After a few moments, the video feed on the screen became clear again, and I witnessed another group of protesters walk past. This group, however, was obviously not the group of counter-protesters Reid had shown on the screen before. This group was sporting confederate flags and waving around signs with the Nazi swastika on them. I remember feeling a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realized that the group of counter-protesters had just merged with a group of white supremacists and neo-Nazis.I couldn’t believe my eyes as the events that occurred after slowly unfolded. When the counter-protesters and white supremacists merged together on a street corner, a shouting match began between the opposing sides. This quickly developed into a violent brawl, where people threw glass and deliberately hurt others to display their power and superiority. It was like the most terrifying reality TV show in the world, yet I just couldn’t seem to stop watching. Even though what was going on was scary and sad, I couldn’t help staring at the screen to witness whatever was to happen next.Towards the end of the riot, a white supremacist drove a car head on into a group of counter-protesters, killing a woman named Heather Heyer and injuring several others. By that time, I was too sad to watch the news anymore, and had to turn the television off. Living in Santa Monica, we are probably not as aware of the discrimination that occurs throughout the country. We live in this bubble that is generally very liberal, and because of this, we can be oblivious to the white supremacist movement rising throughout our country.In fact, while most people in Santa Monica do not support the alt-right movement, there are a few white supremacists active in Santa Monica. For instance, on July 9, 2017, when the Committee for Racial Justice (CRJ) met at Virginia Avenue Park in Santa Monica to discuss white privilege, five masked individuals showed up to make racist and anti-semitic comments all throughout the meeting. The five masked individuals who attended the meeting were members of The Red Elephants, an organization comprised of conservatives that are pro-Trump and, as shown by their actions at the CRJ meeting, quite racist and anti-semitic.While the CRJ claims that this was the first occurrence of white supremacy at one of their meetings, this event reveals that there are people in Santa Monica who support the alt-right movement. Often we presume that Santa Monica is different from other cities because everyone has similar political opinions; however, it is important to understand that there are people in Santa Monica who stand for the same beliefs as the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville on August 12. In many ways, I believe our current president, Donald Trump, has given rise to the increase in alt-right activity. Somehow Trump has justified to white supremacists in the United States that treating minorities with such disdain is okay. In fact, when Trump was interviewed about the protests in Charlottesville, he said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” By not getting involved and taking a stand against racism, Trump is condoning discrimination in our country.Since our current administration is not fighting to end racism in the U.S., I believe that it is up to us to take a stand. People throughout the U.S. need to start advocating for change and equality right now, so we can end discrimination throughout the country. Once people decide to take a stand, only then can we begin to eliminate and prevent racism in America.