We watched with horror and sadness the events unfold in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. Racial and anti-Semitic hatred is nothing new in this Nation. Our history is ridden with the oppression of people of color. Christopher Columbus seized Native Americans as slaves on his first voyage and the wealth of the continent was built off the backs of those brought here by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Jim Crow, mass incarceration, debtor’s prisons, segregation, Native American genocide and anti-Semitism have left unhealed wounds.

We must do the work necessary to overcome this history. Real, but halting progress has been made. It would be a dishonor to the heroes and martyrs of the civil rights movement to not recognize what they accomplished, but much more work needs to be done. We stand on their broad shoulders as we continue the struggle for justice.

The display we saw in Charlottesville, while not new, has taken on a renewed force in the last year as hate has become normalized in this political climate. This is not a debate between two competing ideas or between “many sides,” but a fight between those seeking to annihilate and oppress and those seeking equity and justice. Falsely equating them gives credence to speech and conduct that is reprehensible and unconscionable. This is not who we should be and we cannot live up to the promise of our democracy so long as hate is tolerated and encouraged.

The very presence of White Supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville harmed that community. We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Heather Heyer, whose life was cut far too short by an act of hate. We are keeping those injured by the violence in our thoughts and hope that the community of Charlottesville, that was harmed by the words and deeds of White Supremacists, can begin to heal.

Jonathan Smith
Executive Director