Latest news with #Charlottesville
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘Hard for me to understand': grappling with the Charlottesville tragedy eight years on
Deborah Baker's new book, Charlottesville, is about her home town in Virginia, where in summer 2017 white supremacists marched, violence erupted and a counter-protester was murdered. In dizzying detail, Baker charts and reports the chaos. In interludes, she examines the dark history of a city long linked to racist oppression, from the days of Thomas Jefferson, Robert E Lee and slavery to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and resistance to civil rights reform. Putting it all together was a new challenge for a writer whose books include In Extremis, a biography of the 20th-century poet Laura Riding, and A Blue Hand: The Beats in India. 'As a literary biographer, a narrative nonfiction writer, I mostly work out of archives and libraries and letters and diaries and things like that,' Baker said. 'And of course, for this, there wasn't anything like that in a library or institution. So I had to make my own archive, which involved the interviews I did with around 100 people but also old Twitter streams.' Many such streams were shot by progressive protesters and citizen journalists who rallied with local clergy and citizenry against the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, militiamen and alt-right provocateurs who descended on their town. They came because the city government had voted to remove statues of Lee and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, slave-owning Confederate generals who lost the civil war – a reminder that national debate over racism and US history long predated the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and the turmoil that followed. As Baker shows, tensions flickered and spat in Charlottesville for months, the town riven by internal disagreements, democracy playing out its messy truths in endless rallies and meetings about what to do with the statues and the version of history they told. Then came the night of 11 August, when khaki-clad white men carrying tiki torches chanted 'Jews will not replace us' as they marched to the Lee statue. The next day, a 'Unite the Right' rally produced hours of frenetic face-offs and the awful moment when a white supremacist used his car to drive into counter-protesters, injuring 35 and killing one, Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal. 'The prospect of talking to not just living people, and asking them questions about this deeply traumatic event in the center of their lives just made me quail,' Baker said. 'It's one thing reading people's private letters and diaries, and especially dead people. It's completely different when you're actually faced with a person, someone who's half your age, who's grown up in a world that's as foreign to you as India might be to an American.' Baker is 66. Many of those who marched against the right in Charlottesville, if by no means all, are 30 years younger or more. Writing their stories meant understanding their worldviews. 'I was just learning about the parameters of an online existence that was very unfamiliar to me,' Baker said. 'Luckily, I had people who were very patient with my learning curve. 'I didn't know what this historical period was. It was very hard for me to understand the present. I thought certain things were assumed. You know, that Nazis were bad. We figured that one out, I thought. I guess you have to keep refreshing that narrative.' Married to the writer Amitav Ghosh, Baker lives in Brooklyn and India. But as the subtitle to Charlottesville says, in writing about her hometown she also set out to write 'An American Story', particularly about the rise of the far right under Donald Trump. When she started work, in the first days of 2021, Trump had been beaten by Joe Biden. It seemed the far right had reached its high-water mark: the deadly January 6 attack on Congress. But many traced paths from the Capitol back to Charlottesville, particularly to the moment when Trump failed to disown the rightwingers who marched in his name. Baker writes: 'For those watching around the world, Charlottesville's fate as the global synonym for 'white supremacy' and 'white nationalism' was sealed when the president of the United States declared there were 'very fine people on both sides.' 'He doubled down several days later to describe the violence of an imaginary 'alt-left' … Trump's remarks seemed to open the gates of hell. The next 18 months saw a surge in white supremacist violence across the country.' Trump left office but far-right violence continued. Trump didn't leave the stage either. Seven years after Charlottesville, he is back in the White House, attacking anything in government seen to even acknowledge the US's racist past, using claims of 'white genocide' to import white Afrikaners. 'American democracy was failing the whole time I was writing,' Baker said, 'and I didn't realize that it could fall that much further. And obviously it's falling very fast now.' She notes how police violently broke up pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville last year, aggressive behavior in stark contrast to restraint shown to the white supremacists who marched eight years ago. She wonders about the effect her book might have on people 'that didn't quite register what happened in Trump's first term, and about the sense of deja vu not only with 2017 but also these other periods of history which we have conveniently forgotten or swept under the rug, whether it's the Klan or the White Citizens Councils', groups that sprang up in the 1950s, in opposition to attempts to end segregation. In the historical sections of her book, Baker considers famous figures including Lee, Jackson and particularly Jefferson, who lived at Monticello above Charlottesville and designed the UVA campus. She also provides studies of some now forgotten. Prominent among them is John Kasper, an esoteric young demagogue, close to the fascistic poet Ezra Pound, who staged cross burnings in Charlottesville in the 1950s. Kasper died in 1998, long bypassed by history. But as Baker studied the resurgence of a far-right threat she had thought long buried, so she sensed echoes including something of Kasper in the polished figure of Richard Spencer, the 'alt-right' leader who achieved a sort of national prominence around events in Charlottesville in 2017. 'They're like doppelgangers,' Baker said. 'You know: knee-jerk contrarianism, superficiality, really just hunger for fame and attention.' Spencer also saw his star fade. The Lee and Jackson statues, and other contentious Charlottesville monuments, finally did come down. The statue of Lee and his horse, Traveler, is 'the only one that has been actually destroyed,' Baker said. 'The rest of them are all in storage rooms, or they've been moved to battlefields. I'm glad this one is gone. It really is due to this group of Charlottesville women who were very set on not just melting it down and destroying it but set out to make some new kind of art and give to the city.' One day soon, via the Swords Into Plowshares project, the bronze once used in the statue of Lee will form something new. Baker is under no illusion that the far right is defeated. Four months into Trump's second White House term, she is 'surprised that I haven't seen more violence already'. 'I think there was a kind of giddiness when he was first elected,' she said, describing 'a sense that they had their presence. They did these marches for Trump. They had their boat rallies. They had their truck rallies. They had their guy. 'There hasn't been as much of that so far this time. That isn't the form that it's taking. Maybe they just don't feel like they have to be so active.' Charlottesville is out now
Washington Post
a day ago
- General
- Washington Post
Book Review: 'Charlottesville' a dramatic account of deadly 2017 rally and history behind it
Decades before the violent Unite the Right rally in 2017 in Charlottesville that drew white nationalists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, the city was targeted by a white supremacist who hoped to ignite a race war. To understand the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Deborah Baker writes in 'Charlottesville: An American Story,' readers have to go back to 1956 and John Kasper's trip to Charlottesville to protest school integration.
Associated Press
a day ago
- General
- Associated Press
Book Review: 'Charlottesville' a dramatic account of deadly 2017 rally and history behind it
Decades before the violent Unite the Right rally in 2017 in Charlottesville that drew white nationalists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, the city was targeted by a white supremacist who hoped to ignite a race war. To understand the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Deborah Baker writes in 'Charlottesville: An American Story,' readers have to go back to 1956 and John Kasper's trip to Charlottesville to protest school integration. That historical context combines with a vivid narrative of the 2017 demonstrations to give readers a better understanding of the combustible atmosphere that converged on Charlottesville. The narrative is the heart of Baker's comprehensive history, including details of Heather Heyer's killing by James Alex Fields Jr. — who kept a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler by his bedside and drove his car into a crowd of counter protesters. Baker's writing style delivers an on-the-ground feel of what it was like in Charlottesville, including a harrowing account of the night torch-wielding white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia's campus. But Baker also dives into the history of key players in the events that day, including white nationalist leader Richard Spencer and Zyahna Bryant, who initiated the petition to remove the statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the city's parks. She also explores the shortcomings by authorities, including officials who credulously took white nationalist organizers at their word. Baker's research and eye for detail give 'Charlottesville' the historical authority necessary for understanding the tragic events that occurred over those two days. ___ AP book reviews:
The Independent
6 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Jen Psaki mocks Joe Rogan over MAGA white nationalist conspiracy theory and throws strays at new FBI leadership
On her MSNBC show Tuesday, host Jen Psaki mocked Joe Rogan while debunking a MAGA conspiracy theory propagated by the podcaster, which claims that the white supremacist group Patriot Front is actually the FBI. MAGA supporters have long advocated the idea that the Patriot Front is an FBI operation intended to amplify the perceived threat of white nationalist groups. Rogan endorsed this idea on his show as recently as March. Psaki, the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden, played a clip of Rogan claiming that the group disbanded as soon as Kash Patel took over as director of the FBI under President Donald Trump. The host of The Briefing with Jen Psaki then set out why she says the claim was actually false. In the clip, Rogan is seen saying that he and author Matt Taibbi saw a video of Patriot Front, who appear in uniforms with their faces covered, and march carrying flags, and he said he had yelled: 'They're feds!' 'Where's the fat people?' he continues. 'They're all, they're all wearing the same uniform. One guy's got a f***ing drum. Get the f*** out of here! These are feds! The day after Kash Patel gets in, they disband.' Psaki explains that Patriot Front splintered off from the white nationalist group that planned the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in 2017, and has since 'traveled all around the country spewing racist and antisemitic hate.' She continued: 'But rather than just condemn the group, right-wing conspiracy theorists and Trump allies have insisted that Patriot Front is actually just the FBI trying to make white nationalism seem like a bigger threat than it actually is.' Psaki noted that it is not just Rogan pushing the idea, but also Elon Musk, as well as multiple members of Congress, including firebrand Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. 'The core of the theory goes like this. The reason this group wore uniforms in mass was to hide the fact that they were secretly FBI agents, obviously,' said Psaki. 'And that once Kash Patel was in charge of the FBI, he would simply fire the agents involved, and the group would cease to exist. That's how it goes.' She then added that Patel was sworn into office in February, and yet this past weekend, Patriot Front held a rally in Kansas City. A further clip of local news footage was then played with the anchor saying: 'The group was in uniform, wearing tan hats, white masks covering their faces, Navy blue shirts, tan pants, and boots. Some were carrying shields.' He continued: 'The flags they carried included upside-down American flags, the Confederate flag, and a flag that identifies the group as the Patriot Front.' Psaki then quipped: 'Hmm, seems very much like Patriot Front still exists!' She then turned her attention to Trump's FBI leadership — Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino. 'I wonder how FBI Director Kash Patel will explain that one. See, FBI Director Patel and his number two, Dan Bongino, have a problem,' said Psaki. 'Both of them have spent years promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the FBI, but now they are actually in charge of the FBI. Now they are the dogs that caught the car.'
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Public Microschooling Gains Popularity And Support
As microschools and similarly personalized educational models spread quickly across the U.S., visionary educators working within traditional public schools are taking notice. These 'intrapraneurs' are embracing the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that is fueling the growth of new schools and learning spaces in the private sector, and they are bringing that enterprising attitude to their own schools and school districts. George Philhower is one of them. As Superintendent of the Eastern Hancock public school district in rural Charlottesville, Indiana, Philhower first heard about microschooling during the Covid pandemic, and saw the growing appeal of these smaller, more flexible learning communities that tailor curriculum and instruction to each child's individual needs. He began to wonder if there was a way to bring the microschooling model into the public school system. 'I've spent my entire career trying to figure out how to create school experiences that kids actually love—places where they feel seen, safe, challenged and inspired,' said Philhower, who started out as a public school special education teacher more than two decades ago. 'Over time, I've become convinced that to truly achieve that, we need a level of personalization that's hard to accomplish within traditional school structures. That's where the microschool model comes in.' Two years of conversations and planning culminated in the creation of the Indiana Microschooling Collaborative (IMC), a nonprofit organization that gained approval earlier this month from the Indiana Charter School Board to operate the state's first network of public charter-microschools. Like all charter schools, these IMC schools will be tuition-free public schools, with the first location set to open within the Eastern Hancock school district this fall. The goal is for these IMC microschools to eventually expand statewide. Philhower is leading the IMC network and overseeing the launch of the new microschools, while continuing in his role as Eastern Hancock Superintendent. This collaboration is intentional. Philhower says that the IMC network and the school district are fully aligned in their enthusiasm for the microschooling model and are eager to work together to innovate public schooling from within. 'If we want to create schools where every kid wakes up excited to attend, it's going to take both transforming existing systems and building new ones that can serve as models,' said Philhower. 'Personally, I also want to break down the walls that separate different types of schools.' Indiana has been a pioneer in expanding education options. In addition to charter schools and intra-district and cross-district 'open enrollment' options that enable students to choose a different public school, Indiana is among the 16 states that have introduced universal private school-choice programs in the past few years. These programs enable all school-age children to be eligible to use a portion of education funding for private educational options, including microschools. Philhower believes it is good for families to have options when it comes to a child's education. Currently, 40 percent of the 1,200 students in his Eastern Hancock school district are choosing to attend from other districts. That's an incentive for Philhower and his colleagues at both Eastern Hancock and IMC to continue to innovate, as they compete with a growing assortment of public and private educational choices. 'IMC is designed to offer a free, public option for families who might otherwise choose homeschooling or leave the public system altogether, while still wanting support, structure and a clear path to a diploma,' he said. Microschools and various homeschooling collaboratives are often able to respond quickly and creatively to the needs and preferences of parents and students, which is why their popularity has grown in both Indiana and across the country. Jill Haskins, a former public school teacher turned Indiana homeschooling mom and microschool founder, has seen this growth first-hand. She created the Indiana Microschool Network to support microschool founders and families, and also works closely with the National Microschooling Center on outreach efforts in Indiana and beyond. In 2023, Haskins knew of only 6 microschools in Indiana. Today, she says there are over 130 microschools in the state, with new ones regularly opening. This microschooling momentum creates an opportunity for education 'intrapraneurs' working within the traditional public school system to emulate the innovations occurring around them to attract and retain families. New resources, such as the Public Microschool Handbook, aim to help public school educators to launch and lead new microschools within their school systems. Published this month by Transcend Education, the Getting Smart Collective and Learner-Centered Collaborative, the Handbook is a comprehensive guide for public microschool leaders, offering tips and action items for each stage of the launch process. My new book on the proliferation of innovative K-12 learning models also has a chapter dedicated to these "intrapreneurs" and the steps they can take to make change internally. Educators within and outside of the traditional public school system are recognizing the rising demand for smaller, more personalized, more learner-centered educational models like microschools. In Indiana, Haskins is thrilled that a new charter-microschool network is emerging alongside the state's robust independent microschooling sector. 'I believe that microschooling, in general, is a really great option for families and what better way to create systemic change in the public schools than by having public schools open microschools,' she said, adding that she hopes the rise of public microschooling won't compromise the originality and autonomy of private microschools. 'My one concern about public microschools is that the Indiana Department of Education is going to assume that the public sector is exactly like the private sector and the implications of that could be stifling for the private microschools. Our approaches are very different.'
