Out of the embers of Charlottesville
The hate, ugliness and violence of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., one year ago this weekend, is nothing to celebrate. It needed to be condemned in unequivocal terms — something President Trump shamefully failed to do. So here we go again, with the racists and anti-Semites planning a rally Sunday within shouting distance of the White House, having been denied a permit in Charlottesville. No one is under the illusion that racism ever disappeared from American society, but the code words, stereotypes and fears are returning in audacious ways.
Trump has set a distressing tone with his vilification of immigrants and his racially tinged denunciation of certain prominent African Americans as intellectually inferior — as well as his vitriol against black NFL players who are protesting injustice during the national anthem. A prime-time host on Trump’s favorite network, Fox News, bemoaned this week that the “America we know and love” is being lost by “massive demographic changes” due, in large part, to immigration.
The forces of racial resentment neither began nor ended in Charlottesville.
John Diaz, editorial page editor
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