When “Unite the Right” met the United Right

Yesterday, Unite the Right 2 was held in Washington D. C. For weeks, we had been hearing of the anticipated crowds of white supremacists that would be descending upon D.C. The city itself was in preparations as well, shutting down certain subways and mobilizing its police force. Businesses posted signs in rejection of the even, preparing to drive supremacists away. Even apps like AirBnb, Uber, and Lyft were we allowing their operators within the city limits to deny service to any white supremacists during the event.

“Unite the Right 2” wasn’t just gathering in “honor” of last year’s Charlottesville Tiki Torch, polo, and khaki pant clad protest of the removal of another Confederate statue. Like with most things in this nation’s racial past, I consulted the voices of my elders, who reminded me that this upcoming march was not the first time white supremacists had been so bold as to parade themselves on D.C.’s streets. The last time white supremacists marched on the Nation’s Capital on August 8th, 1925 may not be remembered by most, but it was a frightening display of terrorism affirmed by the country as 30,000 hooded men marched those same streets that our country’s founding fathers and mothers had done.

Here we are, nearly 100 years since that brazen and gross act of visual terrorism, and Unite The Right’s next march threatened to echo that…