What Virginia Tells Us

What Virginia Tells Us

            The tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia reveals that America is in the midst of a racial, class and cultural war.  It also highlights that Donald Trump’s presidency is in deep trouble.   That more than any other person in the United States, President Trump lacks the courage, moral fiber and intellect to face the nation and provide the language to start a path to healing.

Foremost, Charlottesville reveals that the nation is still dealing with the unresolved issues of the Civil War.  That many, regardless of political affiliation, cannot see that the preservation of a lost cause and its transformation through monuments, flags, and statues promotes a culture that worships racial superiority.  That such an allegiance is truly heinous and psychologically damaging.  That America, for over 150 years, has honored people who were considered traitors of the nation.  There are more statues honoring slavery, Confederate soldiers, and the cause of the war than any other form of national monument. [1]

            It does not mean, however, that every piece of documentation is taken down and destroyed, but that we need to consider the consequences of our actions. We are not whitewashing history by removing these artifacts but they need not to be present to know and remember what should be considered a dark time in our nation’s past.  It is funny that Americans who have cheered the toppling of Lenin’s, Mao’s, Gaddafi’s, Cecil Rhodes’, and Saddam Hussein’s statues are not willing to topple some of their own.[2]

            The President’s failure to not bring attention that this protest, “Unite the Right,” was initiated by white supremacists coming to Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue that represents the legacy of the Confederacy is more than a glaring omission.  It is not ignoring the fact that Robert E. Lee was an important Virginian, but rather that his statue is more about the war and slavery than it is about Lee's contributions to the nation before the conflict. (General Lee was a slaveholder and a defender of slavery. He was a highly decorated soldier before the Civil War. However, as a man of principle he left his command in the US Army and agreed to lead the Army of Virginia in support of the Confederacy. His statues, which are throughout Virginia and other states, commemorate his service to the Confederacy not the United States. So in promoting General Lee, President Trump needs to place history in its correct perspective. To some the fact that he owned slaves is a reason why his statue should be taken down, but to many more, the fact that led the army that rebelled against the Union is why his statue should be removed.)

            Left and centrist groups are being blamed for attending this protest as counter-protestors but we have to see the larger picture.  Counter-protesting has been accepted as part of the moral consciousness of the nation.  Whether right or wrong, counter-protesting has become a necessity to draw attention to things that are not in keeping with the American way.  It is obvious from watching the videos of two days of protest and hearing the chants of the crowd that the Alt-Right, Neo-Nazi, and Klan affiliated protestors were not solely speaking about the statues but about white supremacy.

Second, that the loss of life requires significant acknowledgement.  Protesting is supported by the Constitution, but the murder and maiming of innocents is a crime. Heather D. Heyer was an innocent.  Whether she was out protesting or happened to be walking on the streets in her city, she was not violating any law.  Her murder and the injuring of twenty pedestrians is an act of domestic terrorism.  It should be acknowledged as a hate crime, and James Alex Fields, Jr. should be prosecuted as a domestic terrorist.

Similarly, the lives of H. Jay Cullen and Berke M. M. Bates, the state troopers who died in a helicopter crash while ensuring the Constitutional rights of all protestors, should be equally acknowledged and honored.  We all need to thank their families for their service and equally morn their loss.

But ultimately, the largest issue is that President Donald J. Trump lacks moral authority. It is his responsibility to stand up for all Americans.  In his own way, it appears that he did.  Unfortunately, in doing so, Mr. Trump violated the creed that all men are created equal by giving space to those who want to make America an all-white nation!  The president systematically gave legitimacy to the protest and the racists by dividing the conflict into halves, placing blame on those who wanted to take down the statue and those who wanted it to remain in the park.  In doing so he negated the fact that the majority of those who believed they were protecting Robert E. Lee saw the monument as a testament to racism and racial superiority.  In Trump’s mind it did not matter that the majority of these protestors were associated with hate groups.  His logic made the protest about a statue and not about the legacy of slavery, racism and Jim Crow.  He justified a century of racial lynchings, in which over 4,000 people were illegally murdered and no one was brought to justice.  His actions supported the segregation of millions of Americans and designation of a second-class status for blacks, women and other racial and ethnic minorities.  Similarly, the president saw the counter-protestors whose ranks were comprised of ordinary citizens of all races, clergy, Anti-Fa and Black Lives Matter as comparable to those who spoke racial hatred. 

No one is disputing that there was violence on both sides, but neither Black Lives Matter nor Anti-Fa are associated with racial superiority.  Mr. Trump is also overlooking the fact that one side, the side that he says had a permit to protest, came prepared with guns, shields and other weapons prepared to inflict bodily harm. He is ignoring the fact that local hospitals cancelled all elective surgeries fearing that violence would occur.  What the hospitals knew, but what the president fails to acknowledge, is that the protestors sent out pamphlets that featured violent intentions. 

The president said he did not want to act or make a statement without the facts.  However, he has not reached out to the counter-protestors for information. He remains ignorant to the fact that the racial hatred group surrounded a church where ministers of various faiths were decrying hate speech.  In the videos that he claims everyone saw, the Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and Alt-Right marched to the statue that was already surrounded by their opponents and started a confrontation. 

The public wants to believe that the president will take the moral high ground and somehow see what happened at Charlottesville as a conflict between good and evil.  Sadly, Mr. Trump’s world-view is not based on moralism.  His past is littered with various types of homophobic, sexist, racist, and anti-Semitic behaviors.  President Trump’s actions, and his actions alone, made Charlottesville possible.  He created this environment that emboldened the non-politically correct to march in the streets carrying torches outside of churches, shouting: “you will not replace us”, “Whose streets? Our streets,” “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us”, as well as murder people in bars and restaurants, and stab innocents on the streets and commuter trains.  And his rhetoric has increased the number of bias incidents by children against their peers and sometimes against their teachers. 

Honestly, though racism is as old as America itself.  But not for nearly a hundred years has a president taken this position.[3]  Mr. Trump campaigned for office by inciting racial and class divisions and continues to do so while in office.  The president has created policies that affect each of these groups.  Most recently, he has attacked Affirmative Action just when it was revealed that he has used his family’s wealth and social class to gain things, including college admissions for himself and his children, which were not based on merit.[4]  And to use the fact that he has Jewish family members, and Jewish, African American, gay and working class supporters does not absolve him from prejudicial actions or words.  At minimum, he is highly insensitive or at the extreme he is a bigot.

A case in point was the speed in which the president attacked Kenneth Frazier, an African American and the chairman and CEO of Merck, for resigning from the president’s American Manufacturing Council in lieu of Mr. Trump’s failure to say more against racial intolerance following the events in Charlottesville. Within an hour of Mr. Frazier’s statement, the president offered a negative tweet. Yet, when two other executives, Brian Krzanich of Intel and Under Armour’s Kevin Plank, both white, announced they were also leaving the council, the president did not respond.  

Also consider the manner in which the president made his two “denouncement” statements.  It was obvious that the comments did not feel heartfelt.  President Trump seemed like he was being forced to make the statements, especially the second one.  Both were attached to discussions of accomplishments.  In the process of televising his comments, the media demonstrated its disdain for the president by highlighting his lack of empathy.  Clearly by the time he gave the second statement, America was waiting to hear that he had spoken to the grieving families and might even attend the funerals.  There was no such expression of grief or widespread condolences.  Instead his poor acting abilities fed into the notion that the loss of life and the furor over hate groups were indistinguishable and blimps on the radar of the “bigger picture of the Trump achievements.”

These acts reveal to those who are hurting and seeking answers that the White House does not feel their pain.  Without the comments of General Kelly, Vice President Pence and Attorney General Sessions, the Trump administration would have been lost.  For the first time, Congress reacted independently of the president, and partisanship was minimized.  The business community joined them and spoke out against these hate groups and the actions of the president.  And, Doug McMillion, another member of his American Manufacturing Council, made an announcement stating that the president missed a “critical opportunity to bring America together.” Ultimately, there has been more outcry and dignified statements from international leaders than America’s leader.

What is not revealed are the views of the other “America.” These are the people who feel left out and that they are losing their nation.  We don’t know how many people are outraged by the removal of the statues because they fear that they might be labeled racists.  Polls, unfortunately, do not demonstrate how many people actually have these sentiments.  It appears though that many Americans are silent supporters of the Trump agenda.

On Tuesday, a day after Mr. Trump finally denounced the white hate groups in Charlottesville, the president began the day with tweets against his enemies including an image of the “Trump train” running over a man bearing the CNN logo. It was apparent that he was not happy with the media treatment of his statement. Clearly Trump was expecting widespread acknowledgement and praise.  However, for most it was days too late.

Later in the afternoon, when the president was supposed to speak about infrastructure development, Mr. Trump stepped into another landmine.  Rather than sticking to the topic at hand, President Trump doubled down and restated his previous position from the first announcement that there was blame on “all sides.” He apparently decided to speak for that silent population and downplayed the white supremacist participation and said that there were fine people in both crowds.  Additionally, he called out the counter protestors labeling them the Alt-Left.  And he questioned the legitimacy of removing the statues by suggesting that Washington’s and Jefferson’s statues might be next.

President Trump’s press conference created a larger and even greater controversy with him at the center of the crisis.  Trump overwhelmed the events in Charlottesville and now he is the news.   He found himself widely criticized by the left and even members of his own party.  Additional denouncements followed from the media, numerous businessmen, corporations and educational institutions.  President Trump, angry and defiant, retreated into Trump Tower for the rest of the evening.

But as the events unfolded, President Trump did receive support, including from the march’s keynote leaders, David Duke, the former Klan’s leader, and Richard Spencer, the leader of the Alt-Right.  Each man tweeted praise for the president’s support.  Other hate groups also responded stating that they would have additional marches in other cities. It appears that crisis is escalating and that this might be the first salvo in a larger conflict.

As Tuesday transitioned into Wednesday, the news media argued that August 15^th is a day that Americans will remember.  Talking heads are devouring the president and stressing that he has weakened the legacy of the presidency.  On Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show it was revealed that the president’s father was involved and arrested at a Klan rally in Queens in 1927.[5]  And while the newspaper articles did not state that Fred Trump was a member of the Klan, it appears that he was a Klan associate. Hence, the linkage of the Trump name with the nation’s oldest hate group is reinforcing the idea that Trump is a racist.[6]  Such claims also revisit the belief that Trump aides Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller are supremacists or sympathetic to racist groups.[7]  Critics are calling for the president to disassociate from each and drop them from his orbit.

Resistance to Trump and his presidency is increasing.  By Wednesday morning, African American mayors in Birmingham and Baltimore took action against images of the Confederacy.  Every statue and monument in Baltimore, which was a border state, was removed overnight.  Birmingham, a city that did not exist in 1865, had its Civil War monument covered.  The mayor of Phoenix urged the president not to come to his city for a rally on August 22^nd to pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  A plaque honoring General Lee was removed from outside a church in Brooklyn, New York.  Despite the president’s complaints about “reversing history” other cities are making plans to dismantle or remove Confederate statues.  And, after hearing that more business leaders were going to leave his councils, President Trump dismantled his advisory groups.

So what are we to make of our president and our nation?  Did the leader of the country actually give a wink and pass to the Alt-Right, Klan and Neo-Nazis?  Is Charlottesville an aberration or a sign of things to come?  What is the fate of the symbols of slavery, racism and hate that are found in more than half of the nation?  Finally, will the nation assume its own moral high ground and force politicians to resist Trump and try to force him out of office?

As the sun starts to rise on a new day, America is left with an identity crisis-a divided country, a president who doesn’t want to accept or promote the moral high ground, people who are looking for strong leadership, a public who are torn over the legacy of the historical past, and three families burying their loved ones.  The nation mourns for their losses and also for itself.  We need to make sure that Charlottesville stands for more than the site of a physical confrontation.

The future is not known, but the coming days will provide the nation with one of its greatest tests of its history!

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[1] It is estimated that there are over 1,000 Confederate monuments in 31 states. Some were built in the 1880s and 1890s, most were constructed between 1900 and 1930, and some have been built since the 1960s.

[2] It is important to understand that the statues were not built immediately after the war, but to support the strength of the Jim Crow south.  And it is interesting to note that if we searched through the nation’s history, only a handful of famous statues have been taken down.  One is that of Benedict Arnold, a national traitor during the American Revolution.  Another is of Joe Paterno on the campus of Penn State University.

[3] Woodrow Wilson clearly supported racial discrimination and legalized segregation as the governor of New Jersey and later as the president of the United States 1912-1920.

[4] It is now well known that Donald Trump was able to transfer from Fordham University to the University of Pennsylvania because his older brother Fred reached out to a friend who worked in the university’s admission office.  See Glenn Kessler, “Commentary: Donald Trump’s myths about himself” The Chicago Tribune February 1, 2016 < http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-donald-trump-myths-20160128-story.html> accessed August 15, 2017.  It is also believed that Fred Trump, Sr. made a significant donation to the university following Donald’s admission.  President Trump made over a million dollars worth of donations after 1970. Three of his children Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Tiffany graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.  (Was their admission based on merit or alumni wealth?)

[5] Philip Bump, “In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens” The Washington Post  February 29, 2016 < https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/28/in-1927-donald-trumps-father-was-arrested-after-a-klan-riot-in-queens/?utm_term=.bcd606016384> accessed August 15, 2017.

[6] Ibid. Both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz challenged Trump about his support from David Duke during the Republican primaries.  In response Trump denied that he knew Duke or anything about him.  Yet, the two knew that in 2000, Trump had denounced Duke as a Klansman. Others like Russell Simmons, a former long-time friend, would simply see Trump’s actions with white supremacists as opportunistic. Simmons stated that Trump was the “epitome” of  “white supremacy”. See Timothy L. O’Brien, “Why Trump cannot respond to Charlottesville” ArcaMax August 14, 2017 https://www.arcamax.com/politics/opeds/s-1987371 accessed August 15, 2017.

[7] “David Smith, Q&A: What are Trump and the White House’s links to the far right?” The Guardian August 14, 2017 < https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/14/donald-trump-steve-bannon-breitbart-news-alt-right-charlottesville> accessed August 15, 2017.