Following the riots last week between super-testosteronized (my own term, in order to avoid profanity) bullies and counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Va., the media quickly used the term “white nationalists.” The term may fit the left-wing agenda to denigrate any person with white skin who is proud of the United States, our Constitution and our traditional role as leader of the free world. However, it is an insult to associate patriotic Americans who are proud of our country with racist brutes.
The superficial occasion for the white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville was to protest a decision by the city council to remove a statue of one of Virginia’s most cherished heroes, Gen. Robert E. Lee. The controversial decision is currently tied up in courts as multiple groups sought legal channels after the council refused to consider their inputs.
However, the real reason for the protest has deeper roots. The Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other misguided thugs responded to a call by their new guru, Richard Spencer, who organized the protest. Spencer emerged recently through fringe internet sites as a rock star among white supremacists. He is the president of National Policy Institute who has ecured a permit to lead another protest (White Lives Matter) on the campus of Texas A&M university next month. Spencer used the controversial decision by the city council not as an occasion to protest removing a statue of a man respected by historical scholars in both the North and South but as an opportunity to gain national notoriety for himself and his hate-filled organization.
In the other Charlottesville corner is Spencer’s nemesis, Councilman and Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy. Bellamy moved from South Carolina to Virginia in 2009 to teach computer science in Alblemarle County Public Schools. He soon ran for an opening on the city council after establishing himself as a political activist within the black community. Bellamy was a leader in the decision to remove the Lee statue.
Spencer saw an opportunity for retribution. Through his extensive national blog network, he released many of Bellamy’s lurid social media posts. In April 2017 the Cavalier Daily, student newspaper of the University of Virginia, published the posts and commented they were “homophobic, sexist, and anti-white.” The students were spot on. Bellamy’s words are unfit to quote.