How will West Virginia respond to white supremacist group’s march?

Last Saturday the white supremacists came to town. While many in Charleston were attending the YWCA’s annual Race to End Racism, the group, wearing khaki pants and hats, some carrying shields and others carrying upside down American flags and another flag that evokes the original symbol for fascism marched from the Stonewall Jackson statue at the Capitol to downtown. 

I’m here to say that white nationalism, neo-Nazis, and facism are all bad. 

I’m less interested in spending time asking why the white supremacists came to Charleston. I’m not sure it says that much about Charleston or West Virginia as whole that they felt safe to march downtown and along Kanawha Boulevard. Or to guess that they chose this area because they think people in the state are ripe for recruiting into their ranks. Of course it’s easy to point at the inflammatory anti-LGBTQ and immigrant rhetoric that our state’s elected leaders and candidates are spewing in the statehouse and during our television commercial breaks and say that serves as a welcome sign.

But white supremacists march wherever they think they will get attention, whether that’s Washington, D.C., Nashville or Disney World. And this group that came seems particularly interested in drumming up social media hits, according to reporting from national outlets. 

Instead, I’m more interested in asking what do West Virginians do next? And how do we ensure that young West Virginians don’t become radicalized and join hate groups like the white supremacist movement? And that’s where the rhetoric and policy proposals from our political leaders come into play.

The Republican gubernatorial candidates have been tripping over each other in the race to take the most right-wing stances, demonizing marginalized populations along the way. Strangely, it seems that transgender issues, particularly concerning youth, are what candidates think voters care about most, despite polling that indicates otherwise. Just this week, the Washington Post reported how restricting LGBTQ rights has not been a winning issue for GOP legislatures across the country. 

No one told campaign strategists, I guess. 

The border is another boogeyman this year, and we know that when candidates talk about the border, they’re often trying to evoke fear of people of color. 

Candidates have also been trying to define themselves as “Trump Republicans.” What does that mean?  Does it mean they agree with former President Trump that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country? Do they agree with his recent statement that the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville seven years ago was “a peanut?” 

The Republican gubernatorial candidates, the lawmakers in the statehouse, should take the fact that white nationalists marched in Charleston as a chance to reexamine if demagoguery and bigotry are things they want to be associated with. 

Sadly, I don’t expect meaningful pushback from them, or the organizations that are working to elect them. Truthfully, I expect them to be silent on the march altogether. If I’m proven wrong, it will be the rote “I don’t condone the views of the marchers.” That’s not good enough anymore. Will they commit to not running legislation that doesn’t cause active harm to marginalized groups anymore? Or will they try to ban DEI and critical race theory — frameworks that could help us talk about why white supremacy is bad — again? 

I think I know the answer.