On August 12, 2017, an innocent woman was killed at the hands of a white supremacist who made the decision to drive his car into a crowd of harmless protestors. This event, fueled by hatred, was the pinnacle of violence during a weekend that was filled with egregious acts. It is also important to note that these riots occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, a city that has deeply buried roots of racism. All this leads to the point that: Systematic racism and the beliefs and actions of the white supremacists are what caused the outbreaks of violence and death in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Before the events that occurred in Charlottesville can be addressed, it is first important to understand the systematic racism that is present within the United States. Dating back to the year 1837, the word “nigger” has been used to terrorize people of color within the United States. This one word, made prominent by slave owners in the 18th and 19th centuries, served as a way to try to let black men and women know that they were, and always would be, inferior to the white race. According to Elizabeth Pryor, mothers and fathers would even go so far as to tell their children “stories of nigger boogeymen” to warn them that if they misbehaved they would “have no more credit than a nigger.” Actions like these only served to keep the tradition of the word “nigger” alive, as teaching impressionable children that words like that are encouraged to be said helped to keep the word from dying. As well, things such as this set a certain precedent in the United States, which made it fine, if not even commonplace, to yell these types of obscenities at African Americans passing by on the street. 

This problem with the word “nigger” had a drastic effect on people of color at the time. In Elizabeth Pryor’s words, “independent travel within their hometowns and beyond was stressful, dangerous, and sometimes deadly.” By the constant mention of the word “nigger,” people of color were made to believe their social status and their overall worth was less than that of a white man or woman, which is a sentiment that many of the white supremacists who marched on Charlottesville maintained. 

Another important part of history that must also be analyzed is that of the history of Charlottesville, Virginia. As this was where the protests occurred, it is important to understand why the white supremacists decided to make this the location where they protested. The University of Virginia, which was established in Charlottesville, Virginia, plays a large role in this history. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, Lauren Jackson, writer for The Washington Post, states that Jefferson attempted to make sure that “students would be barred from bringing slaves to school,” although this never ended up working out well as most students were slave owners themselves. In fact, Lauren Jackson says that “slaves outnumbered whites in Albemarle County (the county which Charlottesville is inside)” This piece of data is quite astounding, as it highlights how many students owned slaves as well as how big owning slaves was at this time. 

One part of the university’s history that is also important to note is how the University handled the civil war. As the state of Virginia was part of the confederacy, during the Civil War the campus was “converted into a Confederate armory and hospital” with “the South’s flag flying high above the school’s library.” It is important to include this when talking about the University of Virginia as it shows that the school’s past is embedded deeply with that of the Confederacy. During this time, many students went off to fight for a cause that included wanting to maintain the enslavement of African Americans, while their school actively armed and rehabilitated the injured Confederate troops.

Furthermore, after the Civil War had come to an end, the University of Virginia still found ways to ostracize African Americans. When school began once again, Lauren Jackson’s article states that “blacks were still prohibited from living on campus, clustering in a nearby neighborhood known as ‘Canada’.” This neighborhood was said to be visible from the campus’s south lawn, so the university “erected buildings that ended Jefferson’s plan for an open vista, but conveniently screened this community from view.” As these buildings went against Thomas Jefferson’s original plans for the university, it’s likely that they were built to further push away African Americans from the university as tensions were still high following the war.

One final, and important, part of the University of Virginia’s past is that of the involvement of the Klu Klux Klan at the university. In the early 1900s, the Klu Klux Klan established a chapter on the campus of the University of Virginia. This alone set a precedent to the students at the university that sharing the same beliefs as those in the Klu Klux Klan is acceptable, as they were allowed to make a presence there. To add on to this, Lauren Jackson states in her article that in 1921, “the Charlottesville Klan donated $1,000 to the university’s centennial endowment fund.” After accounting for interest, this donation would come out to be around $12,500 in today’s current economy. This substantial donation, which was accepted by the University of Virginia, further shows that the university was not afraid to welcome the influence of Klu Klux Klan. All of these components of the University of Virginia’s history illustrate why the white supremacists decided to march at the university, as it has a past that seems to encourage the behavior and back up the message which they were attempting to display.

Since the factors that came into play when the white supremacists decided to march in Charlottesville, Virginia have been explained, it is now important to talk about the motivations and actions of the white supremacists. According to David Z. Morris of Fortune, a group of white supremacists had pre-meditated plans to commit violent acts when they arrived in Charlottesville. Prior to the protests in Charlottesville, many white supremacists created a group chat over a private messaging service called Discord. In this group message, they discussed plans to run over anyone who got in their way, which eventually ended up happening. Though David Z. Morris says “[t]here’s no indication James Alex Fields, the driver of the car that killed Heyer and injured more than a dozen others, was part of the Discord discussion,” his act was lauded after the fact in the same Discord chat. Members of the chat apparently “celebrated and defended” James Alex Fields, which shows how much the white supremacists cared about causing violence during their protests. Though there is always a prospect that the leaked screenshots of the chat could be illegitimate, a lawyer representing two of the victims who were hit by Fields’ vehicle believes that the screenshots could be “the crux of the case” as it shows that the supremacists “demonstrated a desire for violence.” Similarly, the administrators of Discord suspended the group message created by the white supremacists, further adding evidence that the chat did exist and that the messages sent in it were legitimate. 

Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence which brings to light the motives of the white supremacists comes from a documentary produced by VICE, which is a subdivision of the popular television network HBO. In this short documentary, VICE correspondent Elle Reeve went along with white supremacists from the “Unite the Right” group to document the protest and gain first hand footage and opinions from some of the white supremacists. One offhand remark from a white supremacist that is of importance when speaking on this subject is “nothing like pepper spray on a Saturday.” This statement by one of the white nationalists holds a lot of value when talking about pre-meditated violence, as it shows that this protestor was prepared, and arguably eager, to use pepper spray on anyone who decided to get in his way. This also shows a good amount of ignorance on the side of whomever said that remark, as it shows that the person in question was too oblivious to other viewpoints that he had already made the decision to use pepper spray on anyone who held an opinion that was different from his. 

Another quote from the documentary that is really important to include comes from Christopher Cantwell, one of the leaders of the “Unite the Right” movement. When asked by Elle Reeve if their group was nonviolent, Cantwell responded by saying “we’re not nonviolent, we’ll fucking kill these people if we have to.” This statement puts into perspective just how malicious Cantwell’s intents were when heading to the rallies. Also, since Cantwell is one of the leaders of the “Unite the Right,” it’s likely that most, if not all of the members, shared the same sentiment as Cantwell. After the protests had ended, Elle Reeves interviewed Cantwell one last time to get his thoughts on how the rally went down. Before the interview started, Cantwell showed Elle Reeves all of the weapons he had brought with him for the protests. In total, he went down to Charlottesville equipped with five guns, one which was an AK-47, and a knife. He did not believe that he was carrying too many weapons. When asked about his opinions on how the protests went down, he said that it was “points for us” since no fellow white supremacists. This comment was made after the one woman was killed and several others were injured by James Alex Fields, which adds to the distastefulness of his comments. He then proceeded to say that he was glad that “none of [his] people killed anybody unjustly.” Elle Reeves then asked him about the supremacist who ran his car into an innocent crowd of counter-protestors, to which he said that his actions were justified. All of Cantwell’s comments go to show how twisted the minds of the white supremacists are. To believe that carrying five guns and a knife is justifiable speaks to how he didn’t believe that he could get his point across without inciting some type of violence. Similarly, his claim that James Alex Fields’ actions were justified further the point that the white nationalists had a goal of creating conflict and violence when arriving to Charlottesville, and that’d they would stop at no measure to make sure that this would happen.

Overall, the events that transpired Charlottesville at the hands of the white nationalists were planned and executed in such a manner to create large scale violence. Taking into account the history of the United States, with regard to racism, the white nationalists were able to stir up anger and resentment from the citizens of Charlottesville and counter-protestors by screaming and standing behind racist words and acts. More specifically, they made an attempt to use the word “nigger” as much as possible to evoke the most anger out of all those who came to counter protest. Taking into account the history of the word, it is easy to draw parallels between how racist men and women acted in the 1800s, and how the white supremacists acted during their protest. Furthermore, they chose to march in Charlottesville as it was a place that held a large deal of meaning to them. As the University of Virginia served as an armory and hospital for confederate troops, they deemed the university a good place to protest as the confederate mind frame of the civil war era was similar to theirs. Also, the fact that the Klu Klux Klan had a presence at the University of Virginia almost 100 years ago only further played into their decision to march there. When the time had come to finally march, the white supremacists finally got to unleash all the pent-up hatred they had for those who didn’t follow their ideology, and thus the violence broke out which lead to the death of one and hospitalization of over a dozen more. In the end, the white supremacists weren’t afraid to unleash large scale violence on anyone who got in their way. As a matter of fact, they wanted to incite violence the whole time. 
