The Impact of August 12th
by April Riddick
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3/1/18. I am a first year at the University of Virginia. Also, I am an out-of-state African American woman who goes to a predominantly white and Virginian heavy University. Currently, I love this University. However, my mindset when coming to this University after witnessing white supremacy on a national level so close to grounds was embarrassment and disgust. Plus, my dad had gone here, so Charlottesville always had a special place in my heart. This was the college town I had memories of going to football games and touring Monticello. But, now it is being used as a platform for a white supremacists parade was heartbreaking.
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The week leading up to move-in was historical. There was an alt-right parade on August 12th. In this demonstration there were white men walking around the streets of Charlottesville with signs that read, “we will not be replaced,” confederate flags, and nazi symbols. On this day, a woman died protesting against this movement. Plus many counter protestors were injured and harassed. This riot was broadcasted on national television, which showed how the police did not intervene in this violent riot. These men, from outside Charlottesville, carried assault weapons parading around the downtown area. It was disturbing to watch my future home hosting an event like this. I questioned whether I had made the right decision coming to this school.
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8/11/17. Rewinding to the week leading up to move-in. I had been spending all summer preparing for move in. Always going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see if there was anything I could have missed. There was nothing I missed;I definitely was just so excited, and I wanted to keep buying more. I had no idea of what more I could even need, but at the time this was the one thing I felt I could control so I was going to go wild. I was getting nervous of what my roommate would be like and if I would be able to make friends. But more importantly, would I like my classes?.They say college is a time for change and where you find yourself. In my head I knew I wanted to be pre-med Biology major. Would this change by the end of my first year? If I was not going to be a doctor what would I be? I was nervous of what my future after college would be like. My parents insured me that every incoming college student had the same fears.
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8/12/17. I wake up to a warm sunny day in Silver Spring, MD with my small dogs laying beside me as usual. One dog has black curly hair and the other is grey and white with straight hair. They both lie by the foot of my bed. Their heads hang off the bed in a deep slumber. As I move around to wake up,I wake them up too. They lift their heads and turn around to see if I am awake. I greet them with “good morning boys.” As I turn over to grab my phone they come walking up to me. They lay on my chest to see if I will rub them, yet I do not, so they jump off and head downstairs. So I grab my phone scrolling through my social media to see what I missed while I was asleep. I see my dad sent me an email linked to an article of the KKK were on grounds walking around with torches. I am totally confused. Why UVA? Why do these white supremacists feel so threaten when marginalized group are doing well in this country?
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As I get out of bed I wash my face and go downstairs. Then, As I enter the kitchen my mom is glued to CNN as she sits in the living room watching the news like a typical Saturday. The sun shines through heating up the house. My dogs lie on the living room with the sun hitting them as if they are sunbathing. As I walk through the kitchen figuring out what I want for breakfast I notice my mom has not said hello to me. Normally she will say, “good morning, April” or even just a “hello sweetie.” I never look over at what is on the television because I am focused on getting food. As I sit down with my bowl of cereal about to start my Netflix on my computer my mom turns around in panicked voice.
“Do you see what is happening in Charlottesville?!” Was I supposed to know something? I knew what happened last night. So with a confused tone I answered, “Yes, I have read about what happened last night.”
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As I say this my eyes lock to the television seeing live footage of white supremacists with signs parading around Charlottesville. I walk over in confusion and sit on the ground. My dogs come sit beside me to comfort me as they can detect something is wrong.
My mom and I watch in silence for a few minutes but after that she blurts out “this is terrorism,” she continues “why won’t they say what it really is...terrorism...this is a hate crime to toward black people and other marginalized groups that are thriving in the United States.”
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I do not respond because I did not have any words to describe how I feel. This is not what I want to see a week to move-in. As I continue to watch I remember my neighbor is an incoming first-year on the football team. I remember he had already moved-in at this time. So I text him to make sure he is safe, which he responds with a yes. This eases my heart, yet I still am confused why UVA? Were the surrounding counties full of white supremacists or were they outside people? I want to know how the school would deal with a serious issue like this to make the incoming first years more comfortable.
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3/1/18. As my parents had admitted to me at a later date, they were very scared for me. They did not want to show it so that I would not get scared. They wanted to me to keep my excitement about going to college for the first time. But I was their last child to go off to college, and they felt this was not the proper way to send off their baby to college. My dad had gone to this University, so as my dad watched on television these white supremacists ruin this college town, he had so many great memories in, he was hurt and disgusted. He did not want my experience of college to me ruined by these men and their hateful agenda.
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When committing to the University of Virginia, I was aware of the large numbers of Virginians here yet I did not think it would affect me as much as I anticipated. I am from Silver Spring, MD, which is only about 30 minutes away from the Virginia state-line. People tend to say, “you are so close is it even out of state.” However I still feel as though I am in a completely different world. The way people dress, talk, and even values they hold are completely different then back home. Sometimes the slang I may say will get me confused looks from the people around me. Also, many people here seem to know each other some way, so they always have someone to wave “hi” to as they walk.
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Let me explain my hometown of Silver Spring. It is known for having a diverse population, which is completely accurate. When walking around in the grocery store, mall, or downtown Silver Spring, I will see and/or meet people from all around the world. Since having such easy access to the heart of Washington DC many people tend to call it a DC suburb. It is the exemplar of a melting pot. When our guidance counselors were talking to us about applying to schools they would say,“I know this sounds bad but when applying to schools you are going to need to downgrade your perception of diversity.” At first I was very confused by that statement. Does diversity not exist in college? This was before I had visited schools. Once I started visiting schools their point became very clear. I had been blessed to grow up in such a culturally diverse environment, so my guidance counselor had to warn us that it is mostly likely not going to be like this in college especially if we were going to the elite schools.
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So when deciding on the University of Virginia I knew it would be a culture shock because of the lack of diversity. Yet I was up for the challenge. This was such an amazing school that could open so many doors for me I knew I had to take the opportunity.
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8/12/17. As I continue to watch the violence on television, I begin to question how could someone have so much hate in their heart they could do such a thing. Also, as I watched a CNN reporter interviewing a counter-protester, that counter-protester was attacked. CNN cut the interview abruptly and changed back to the anchor. It was scary to see the violence so up close. This is not what a first-year wants to see happening to their future home. Then the calls from family members and friends began. Everyone wants to make sure I was not on grounds yet. As my mom tells them I am not, I can hear their sigh of relief. I feel it too. From what we could see from the television, the Charlottesville police were not helping regulate this. They watch as these white men came from other places and to destroy this beautiful college town. It is heartbreaking. My mom continues to try to comfort me. She is very particular with her words at this moment to make sure I could hear her message clearly. She had told me it would be done in Charlottesville by the time I arrive, yet in this country this was the beginning of a larger issue. According to her, anti-black and anti-minority views in America have tried to remain unspoken but, this event will only bring to light all the opinions that have been quiet to “keep the peace.”
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As I continue to watch I see this is terrorism. Terrorism is defined as the unlawful use of violence and intimidation. That is exactly what those people did on August 11th and 12th. They used their white privilege as motivation to start this riot. In their minds they believe white people should have more privileges over minority groups. However with this changing world they believe they are “losing their privilege.”They knew they could only get in so much trouble because in our society they are known as the dominant group in which they view others as inferior. Many people growing up in recent centuries have moved away from this idea. Yet some parts of the country some people still believe in the idea of the white being the superior race. Many believe with the growing number of immigrants their opportunities of work and education are being taken away. These white supremacists refuse to see these un-earned privileges they have in our society. They fear for their role in society because many of them are uneducated and unskilled. Other minority groups are making big strides in education and the working world despite the oppression put on them for many years. As I continued to process this hatred I had never seen with my own eyes but had only read about in school, I was stunned. Yet, I am not saying I have not gotten looks of being one of the few black people in a setting. That is a stigma that still remains in many which is often unconscious. I had grown up in a very liberal area with only a handful of conservatives that were outspoken at least. So I had not come into contact with many people with differing political views as mine often. I was at my mom’s house as I watched, so my mom could physically see this would hitting me hard. I had never been exposed to hatred like this. So my dad had called to make sure I was doing fine. They both had grown up in the South and had often heard words like the N-word come out of the mouths of white people's mouths in a hateful tone while I had only heard it come out of the mouths of black people as they sing along to a rap song. So my parents were keeping their calm to make sure I would not get freaked out. Plus, they knew one day I would have to see this with my own eyes to know that people with so much hate are still around.
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8/16/17. With only two days till move in, I had to say bye to the friends I had known for most of my life. But, not just them but their families as well. As I would enter their houses their parents would come talk to me, but not about socially adjusting to college or about my major. These questions were in regards to race and if I would feel safe as I leave for college. They would not have asked me these questions if August 12th had not happened. Questions like “will you feel safe there? What are your thoughts as you get ready move in with all of this happening?” This is what got me worried a bit. To know that my friends' families would worry for my safety. It made the event surreal. They would give me a long hug as if they may never see me again. Telling me to be safe, but to really be safe in the South . I wondered whether the South could really be as scary as people sometimes made it out to be. I like southern food and the hospitality that came with it. But I felt those could be common misconceptions people from the North believed to be true. All I knew is that I was going to find out shortly.
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8/18/17. The night of move-in, we had a hall meeting. Everyone was sweaty from moving all their belongings in and getting their rooms arranged or decorated to their liking. Yet this was mandatory meeting to go over the expectations of the floor. At the end of the meeting my RA stated “I cannot end this meeting without talking about what happened August 12th,” she continues “It was a horrible event, and I want you to know they cannot get into the building without an ID so they cannot harm you. So please do not be afraid. But, do not let your guard down because what you saw that day is only the beginning.” As I went to bed that night I knew exactly what my RA meant by this. Violence had ended in Charlottesville but this would bring light racism, and the country would have to confront it.
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8/21/17. As orientation week went on, there were required events for first years to go to. These events they would always start off with “I cannot start this event without speaking about what happened August 12th.” Yet they did not actually speak about it. They would basically say, “It was a sad event and the University is not connected to anything that happened on that day. We will get through this.” Even though they had technically talked about it they had not said anything with substance. It felt dry and as if they were being forced to say this for liability issues or something. So I would hear other people saying, “do we really have to talk about it?” or “not again, it happened and it's over so let's move on.” Other first-years in the crowd were dismissing what had happened that day because they were tired of the same speech everyone had been making. By continuing to bring it up in the same way became repetitive, which gave it less significance so people did not find the need to listen or discuss the issue.
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3/1/18. I am currently in my second semester of my first year of college. My major seems unclear at moment. I have a good group of friends around me and have enjoyed my classes so far. But the real question is do I feel safe? I would answer with yes. Outside of the first year dorms there are ambassadors which patrol the area throughout the night to make sure any non-students cannot get into the building. Another common follow-up question is how has this event affected your experience so far? Personally it has made me more “woke” and willing to talk about race and to get people educated on white privilege and the effects it has on minorities in our society. As well as to make sure I am a part of things I am passionate about. So I joined clubs to make grounds a more diverse and welcoming community.
Author’s Note
My audience is to peers that want to hear my story. The purpose is to give my perspective of August 11/12th as a first year coming into Charlottesville and how this event has affected my college experience so far. The is not as formal tone since I imagine this being published in a magazine. This piece of writing reminds me of the Washington Post article we read about the different perspectives of students that attended the rally that day. This is an opinionated paper of how this has affected me personally. I started the paper with writing my scene of the day of August 12th then expanding out about how this event has affected my experience at UVA.Then ended with a reflection of my college experience so far. This draft needs to be organized better and more focused. Question I would like to leave to the reader is what were your thoughts on August 12th?
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The Myth of Post-Racial America
The term “post-racial” became common after the election of President Barack Obama. Since Americans had elected an African American president, many people believed this meant our society was beyond race as a discriminatory factor. However, if this were true there would be much greater representation of every minority group in positions of power, which is not the case. As we know, most CEOs and members of Congress, for example, are white men. Also, in a post racial world, there would not be so many race related violent attacks against minorities in our society. In this paper, I will describe why we do not live in a post-racial society. To support my claim I will be using Ta-Nehisi Coates’sLetter to My Son to show his experiences as an African American man in America. I will also be interjecting Agustin Fuentes’s Myth of Race piece to show a more academic perspective of the creation of the idea of race. These authors differ in their attitudes toward the future of our societies’ race relation problem but agree on the importance of race in our society.
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The myth of a “post-racial America” can clearly be see in the election of President Barack Obama. He is half white and half black yet is referred to as the first African American president. In my opinion, this is because unconsciously in our mind we still have the idea of the “one-drop rule” meaning “having even one drop of ‘black blood’ in your genealogy makes you black, but having many drops of white blood does not make you white” (Fuentes 525). This is an idea that was created by whites during slavery era to maintain separation of the races. The idea was that if a person had “one drop” of black blood that qualify them as black and potentially a slave. Even though President Obama is mixed with black and white, our society would never call him white. It seems that the “[t]he lower ranking group is what defines the descent” (Fuentes 525). Even in modern times we still hang on to this stigma, with the presence of his ‘black blood’ it does not qualify him as white and can explain the creation of the term biracial. This is an implicit bias we all carry with us which I believe has led to common usage of phrases like “what are you?” or “where are you from?” While, some may see these phrases as harmless and are genuinely curious. However, these are micro-aggressions which give the hidden message that you are abnormal or not as welcome.
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Coates responds to the idea of “post-racial society” by showing his childhood experiences and turning them into life lessons. He shares this intimate letter with the world for the purpose of showing how growing up in inner-city Baltimore had shown him his identity as a “black body.” He refers to himself and the people around him as being ‘black bodies.’ This gives the audience the full effect of how he feels he and people who look like him are seen by white Americans. He explains that they do not see him as a writer, father, or intellectual but as a ‘black body,’ to be tamed or controlled (Coates np). He also says that African Americans living in America learn their place in society by the experiences they have with white Americans. In the letter he makes it very clear that he is not trying to comfort his son but inform him. Comforting him would only be shielding him from reality which he would have to learn one day. So he has taken on the responsibility of explaining to him now the lessons it took him a lifetime to learn.
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"The Myth of Race" article goes into detail about the psychological development of race in our society comes from a different perspective of race. Fuentes comes from more of an academic perspective rather than providing personal anecdotes of his personal experiences. In this way he provides statistics and studies to describe how Americans have developed this misconception that we created race based on the idea that there is biological division between races. However, he does not go into detail about how race came to be. Fuentes states there is not a biological division, yet there is definitely a cultural division. We keep this idea of race alive by being socialized to believe that it is real and keep giving it meaning as a society. He is hopeful at the end by saying if we talk about race more, the misconceptions and realities of it, then we as a society can move away from its importance in our everyday lives.
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In both articles, the authors explain race from their own perspectives. They both agree explicitly race is still very much prevalent in how we go on with our lives. Fuentes’s piece states,“[r]Race is not biology, but race affects biology, experience, and social context” (515) meaning that race is not a biological separation, yet we still believe in it. There have been many tests to prove there is no biological differences between the races. For example, blood has been tested between the races but some blood types were common in some populations depending on the area and the survival of malaria and other blood-based parasites. This is yet another myth busted about the biological divide of the races. Our skin tone only differs based on where our ancestors lived long ago. If your ancestors lived in places with lots of sun, then because of evolution, their skin developed more melanin so that it would not burn as easily. This is why people of African descent have a darker complexion than people from Europe; over time their skin has become darker to fight off the sun for longer without applying any type of medication. Even though there is not a biological factor that divides us into racial groups we still give meaning to this system. Fuentes continues to state “these social race division have real effects on the bodies and minds of the people in the United States” (530).
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Coates’ work is a prime example of the ideas that Fuentes brings up of how race may not be a real divider of categories yet it still does run our society. Coates’s experiences growing up in an inner city, largely African American, poor and working class environment show that different races in America often experience life very differently. He also points out that, in his opinion, African Americans will experience much more racial prejudice and discrimination than a white person may. Since race is so important in our society this is why the idea of automatically looking at someone and trying to determine their race has been socialized into our minds.
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Coates would describe racism in America as a lifestyle that African American people have to get comfortable living in. They have to get comfortable in the discomfort. “In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage” (Coates np). America has gained its wealth and prestige from the exploitation of black bodies. They have been doing it and will continue to do it without seeing the wrong. For example, the most prestigious colleges are predominant white, like UVA, and as an African American student, it has been hard adjusting. It can be hard walking around grounds and not seeaying many people that look like you. Also, professors that alienate you to get the perspective of one of the few African American students in the class. This is the discomfort I have gotten used to, while white students may never feel this way.
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In Coates’, African American children were made very aware of their presence in society by their parents: my ,“[f]ather [. . .] who beat me as if someone might steal me away, because that is exactly what was happening all around us,”(Coates np). He says this as a way to show that at a young age parents were trying to crack down on their children before white America did.“Everyone had lost a child, somehow, to the streets, to jail, to drugs, to guns” (Coates np). If they were to be fooling around and a police officer saw, you do not know what could happen. Your black body would be in the hands of this law enforcement officer. Your body would be in the hands of someone that may not have your best interest in mind. For example, the scene Coates talks about how a boy outside the 7-eleven was holding a gun in his hands. Coates states “as fact until the boy with the small eyes stood across from me holding my entire body in his small hands,” (Coates np). He felt powerless because he had no control of the events leading to this moment and neither did anyone else. The boy holding the gun had control of the whole situation. The gun could have taken away his black body immediately.
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Coates describes how growing up his reality was harsh, but that is not what was portrayed on the screen. On television it would be a happy family with a son that would collect baseball cards. Coates would watch as if they were in a different universe. That he could not relate to the lifestyle on television. This is from the division of race in America. “The 2009 net worth of US households: White $113,149, Black: $5,677, and Hispanic: $6,325...” (Fuentes 530). Fuentes has statistics to show the economic and social divide of races in America. Net worth is determined by someone's wealth minus their debt. There is a very significant difference between a white household versus others in America. This shows the racial divide of the ways that white people versus other minorities tend to live in America. Even as a young boy Coates could notice this divide based on the lifestyle that he was living versus the ones that were being displayed on television.
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Since Coates had such vivid personal experiences and images from the media of what it is like being African American versus White in America, he sees there is a large difference. It can be supported by statistics, but also by looking around at the people staring at your every move. Since having so many experiences with this, he does not have much hope for the future of race relations in America. He does not believe that it will get better, so he writes this letter as a warning of what is to come for his son. However, Fuentes is coming from an academic point of view rather than personal, so he believes that “we can move beyond the myth of race as describing natural and biological units, then we can better address the inequalities that the race myth--and its concomitant, the social practices of racism--have created” (532). He views racism as an ignorance, but shining a light on this will create a better society. Even though Fuentes and Coates have differing opinions on how to change racism or if it can even be changed at all, they agree on the aspect that racism still exists in our society.
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This is the reality Coates’s son had started to see with the case of Eric Garner. “I didn’t comfort you, because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you” (Coates np). His son had experienced frustration over the cases where black people being killed wrongfully and the killers walking free. He could not make him forget this feeling because it was going to keep happening. Coates wanted his son to remember this frustration because this was the reality of America. He wishes he could hide his son from this but because of the color of his skin he is more likely to be the target of racism and perhaps violent racism. Fuentes describes the effect of race on our lives in that we continue to see this prejudice. He describes the cultural division of races. However, he does not discuss generations of racism. We are not born with these ideas of discrimination and prejudice. It is shaped by your environment and parents. Coates brings this idea to the table by taking about the history in America of exploiting black bodies and the idea black parents feel the need to discuss with their children the effect of their own body. His son does not understand why the judge would let these killers walk. Coates cannot comfort him because he had these ideas of his place in society enforced into him by whipping from his father's. Also, from the streets that he had seen black bodies being abused by society and by each other. The injustice of extremely low quality education in low income minority areas and the lack of equal pay over the course of more than one hundred years has played a role in the lack of wealth that families in the black community have been able to accumulate compared to white families in the US.
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In a post-racial world Coates would probably not have felt obligated to write this letter to his son. After seeing so many killings of black men he felt his son starting to become worried. So he thought he would write out a letter to him which would explain many things to come for him. Coates believes this is the best way to explain the recurring theme of African American men being killed by police officers in the media. Since his son is old enough to be able to see these themes of race within the world around him, h. His son can notice that these are motivated by race even though not every news broadcaster may not always say it. It is still very common in these cases of police brutality in America. The most important lesson that Coates makes in this article is that “you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know” (Coates np). In this world people will not see him for who he really is but see the color of his skin and judge based on that.
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In a post-racial world Fuentes would not have felt the need to write this article to educate the public about the injustices of the creation of race. In a post-racial world we would be living in harmony or moving toward it. However, Fuentes sees we are not and it is because we do not have enough knowledge to know better. Without this knowledge, it only gives power to the cultural division we live in.
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To bring back the idea of the Obama era, many were led to believe that our country was doing better in race relations. However, most did not consider how deeply rooted these issues of race are in areas like housing, education, career opportunities, the criminal justice system, and wealth disparities. These issues cannot be turned over in such a quick period of time. These issues cannot begin to be fixed without serious change in leadership positions so more voices can be heard and demands met. We as a society cannot move in the direction of a “post-racial” world without coming to terms with our history and the inequalities that minority groups experience.
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Author's Note
The tone of the paper is professional because the audience is to young scholars at a conference. The paper is about showing how we do not live in a post racial society. I have developed my ideas around Ta-Nehisi Coates’s and Agustin Fuentes’s points of view on race. The Coates article describes his personal experiences as an African American man in a world that was not always pushing him for better. While, Fuentes talks about the development of the idea of race and how we use the idea of race in our society. These authors point of view show how race is still a very important factor in determining how you may be treated in society. I see this being published in an academic journal. I constructed this paper by picking the pieces of writing that I found most interesting so far in the semester. Then I found a connection between them that would be enough to be able to show both points of view. Also, I used personal knowledge I had surround the Obama Election to add more context for the reader. A question for the reader: Before your read this essay would you have said a post-racial society is achievable in the US?
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