The many disguises of white supremacy

None of us can stand by and watch as white supremacists arrive with plastic shields and hateful rhetoric. We can't let them pass off racism as patriotism.

By

Columnists

July 8, 2021 - 9:42 AM

Members of Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, chanted "Reclaim America" and "Take America back" as they marched through Philadelphia's City Square late Saturday into early Sunday morning. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)

When approximately 200 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched in Philadelphia right before Independence Day, I found myself asking a single question: How do people find time to travel across the country in furtherance of hate?

With Americans needlessly dying from COVID-19 when vaccines could save their lives; with gun violence bringing death to workplaces, street corners and homes; with politicians arguing over infrastructure even as buildings collapse in our midst, America shouldn’t have time for hate.

That’s why white people who believe in this country must join the fight against racism.

We’ve seen it before, most notably last summer, when millions of white people joined African Americans and others in the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. If future fights against racism are to succeed, white people will have to stand up again, just as they’ve been forced to do in the past.

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