ABSTRACT
A myth that perpetuates an intense polarization amidst hatred occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday August 11 and Saturday, August 12, 2017. A “Unite the Right” rally was held that weekend as a protest against the city-planned shrouding of the monument to the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was reported to be extensively planned with the needed permissions from city officials. On Friday evening a contingent of neo-Nazi and white supremacists conducted a torch-lit parade on the campus of the University of Virginia chanting among other Nazi slogans “Jews will not replace us.” 1 This explicit reference to Nazi attitudes, so deadly during World War II, shocked many observers and may have stirred the vehemence of counter-protestors the next day. On Saturday morning, a cadre of white supremacist protestors marched toward Emancipation Park, the site of the Lee statue, and encountered agitated counter-protestors. Violent clashes between them began about 10:30 a.m. Just who began the violence is unclear, each side accusing the other. But the violence escalated rapidly until the Governor of Virginia declared a State of Emergency just after 11 a.m. Police seemed to be slow in responding to the violence, perhaps following criticism from Klan members for having enthusiastically intervened in a Ku Klux Klan rally previously. 2
