This weekend, my Twitter timeline was packed with anger, dismay and despair over the events in Charlottesville. Millions of Americans may be shocked, but many of us aren’t surprised by the magnitude of racism and anti-semitism displayed by these events. We've been warning white people about the depravity and violence of white rage, which often goes unchecked and unsanctioned, for decades.

There is nothing more American than unfiltered white rage and white supremacy. What occurred in Charlottesville this weekend wasn’t an anomaly. What occurred on November 8, 2016, was as American as apple pie and what happened this past weekend was, too. This country is built upon the ideologies of white supremacy and we are still grappling with that legacy, as evidenced by tweets Lady Gaga sent on Saturday:

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I pray a true leader will rise to expel hatred from America. This is not US! This is Anti-American #ThisIsNotUS #Charlottesville #BeKind — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 12, 2017

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I know we are not created to hate each other, but to help & love. Use hashtag #BeKind #ThisIsNotUS to tweet positive messages. #Charlotte — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 12, 2017

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How do you think it's best to solve the worlds problems? #ItsNotUS #Charlottesville #BeKind — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 12, 2017

Lady Gaga’s message is most likely well-intentioned, but I wish she understood the ignorance of her tweets. The same goes for the likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Camila Cabello and Norman Lear, all of whom seem to have forgotten what the origins and history of the U.S. look like.

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Is this America now? We cannot let this stand. #Charlottesville — Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) August 12, 2017

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this is horrifying.... hatred, racism and violence have no place in our society... this is not America 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔#Charlottesville — camila (@Camila_Cabello) August 12, 2017

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My heart is heavy as I watch what's happening in #Charlottesville. This is NOT the American Way. https://t.co/6Av8ylR8Uk — Norman Lear (@TheNormanLear) August 12, 2017

But it doesn’t surprise me when white Americans display simplistic and superficial ideas of what they think will end public displays of bigotry or inept leadership. White Americans have a tendency to whitewash and deliberately downplay the reality and gravity of their past and present sins. Slavery is regarded as a minor error within the great tapestry of brutality, despite its long-lasting, systemic and ever-present effects. White people are simultaneously fascinated by slavery-era history and deeply scared of admitting how much they still benefit from generational wealth and privilege from as far back as 400 years ago. Slavery allowed land-owning, slave-owning whites to accumulate massive amounts of wealth while racking up major savings on labor costs (some economists estimate the value of slave labor to be as much as $14 trillion). This money was passed down for generations, while the descendants of enslaved people are still suffering from the effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Going further back, white European settlers were given acres of land under the 1862 Homestead Act, after Native Americans were forcibly removed, and thousands died, following the 1830 Indian Removal Act. In 1790, “free white persons” were given naturalization while immigrants like Asian Americans and other non-white groups were denied citizenship and therefore barred from owning land and accumulating wealth. These barriers to citizenship didn’t change until 1952. White people in the U.S. benefitted from redlining, the G.I. Bill of Rights and, even today, white women benefit the most from affirmative action laws.

"There is nothing more American than unfiltered white rage and white supremacy."

By tweeting #ThisIsNotUS, Lady Gaga and other white progressives ignore just how very much this is the United States. This is a country which still holds territories like Guam and Puerto Rico, and routinely destroys the lands belonging to Native Americans for the sake of oil and other resources. This is a nation which forced more than 100,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps and dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

A protester attends a vigil on August 13, 2017 for the victims of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Getty Images

The U.S. government uses the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to justify the imprisonment of millions of Americans in horrible conditions in order to use prison labor for profit. It has allowed the practice of forced sterilizations on marginalized populations and still did until 2010. State government officials are continually finding ways to re-draw voting maps in order to sway voters toward the right and disenfranchise people of color. Last year, the United Nations issued a report which condemned systemic and structural racism opposing Black Americans and stated that the U.S. government is “not acting with due diligence to protect the rights of African Americans.” Their report called for reparations for the centuries of racism and discrimination.

I could go on listing the numerous present and past atrocities perpetrated by this nation. But it’s important to address what white liberals like Lady Gaga need to understand: people of color have been warning you about the effects of ignoring systemic and overt forms of racism for years.



Racism doesn’t always look like the KKK marching hoodless in broad daylight. Racism also looks like white liberals getting angry at people of color who ask them to confront how they benefit from white supremacy and white privilege. It looks like white women telling me that I am being divisive by asking for an honest conversation about race and racism within feminist circles. It looks like tone-policing, emotional labor, objectification, fetishization, the white-savior complex, staying silent when you hear overt racism, saying nothing about working in a mostly white to all-white office, ignoring gentrification and the school-to-prison pipeline, loving The Help but hating Girls Trip.

"It has always been on white people to end systems of oppression that their ancestors either started or were complicit in at one point or another."

White liberal racism and ignorance is colorblind and complex—you “don’t see color” until a Black person beats you at getting the job you wanted. You don’t mind putting #ItsNotUs in your tweet, but you refuse to dismantle white supremacy from the top down because you’re scared of confronting those you consider to be friends or family. Meanwhile, white supremacists and Nazis harass Black, indigenous and people of color activists online and “sieg heil” amongst lit tiki torches on a university campus. This has always been you. It has always been on white people to end systems of oppression that their ancestors either started or were complicit in at one point or another.

We need white liberals to confront how white supremacy protects them, how they have a privilege which allows them to see blatant racism and still debate the merits of a dialogue with white supremacists and Nazis who want people of color and Jewish people dead. We need white liberals to confront racism in its many forms with courage and persistence, because racism isn’t going to die off with younger generations. The white racists in Charlottesville learned their racism from their parents and their own children will learn it from them. Racism is the legacy of white supremacists and the white people who did nothing to stop it. This is us. This is America.

Lara Witt Lara Witt is a writer and the senior editor of Wear Your Voice magazine.

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