When news of the attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, received widespread attention, at first I was relieved. One of my dear friends had been working tirelessly with other local anti-racism organizers to get the community and its leadership to recognize the real, serious threat that white supremacists, white nationalists, Ku Klux Klan members and their ilk pose. And, finally, I naïvely believed that liberals will finally take the threat of people who deny my humanity and call for my death seriously.
Instead, I've noticed a growing (and, frankly, confusing) pushback on Antifa from progressives. Suddenly, people who were supposedly on my side are denouncing a group of folks who organize against the people who will boldly march the streets shouting racist and anti-Semitic phrases. Individuals like Cornel West have explicitly said that Antifa activists have saved their lives, yet I see (white) liberals spending more time squabbling about alleged Antifa violence than pondering about what they’re doing to fight fascism and dismantle white supremacy.
This story probably will not change the hearts and minds of people who need this lesson the most, but I cannot stay silent about my concerns any longer. The attention in Charlottesville has allowed more conversations about white supremacy and the numerous way it manifests. Unfortunately, in the rush to condemn Antifa, I see white liberals recounting right-wing talking points and spreading misinformation. And in that rush to condemn, I see my alleged allies reinforce white supremacy—the very thing they claim to want to eradicate.
“White supremacy” is thrown around a lot more these days, but do folks really know what it means? It’s easy for most Americans to say they denounce folks like KKK members who will tell a Black or Jewish person they are inhuman to their face. But unabashed white supremacists are just the tip of the iceberg of white supremacy. White supremacy isn’t just burning crosses on a Black person’s lawn; it’s also attitudes, norms, and institutions (including police) that reinforce white privilege.
Where is *your* line between acceptable and unacceptable white supremacy?
A lot of the talk about Antifa often omits what the label actually means. For a reputable definition let’s turn to historian Mark Bray, who is a lecturer at Dartmouth College and author of the upcoming book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Notebook. In a piece for the Washington Post, Bray explains (emphasis mine):
But what is antifa? Where did it come from? Militant anti-fascist or “antifa” (pronounced ANtifa) is a radical pan-leftist politics of social revolution applied to fighting the far right. Its adherents are predominantly communists, socialists and anarchists who reject turning to the police or the state to halt the advance of white supremacy. Instead they advocate popular opposition to fascism as we witnessed in Charlottesville.
There are antifa groups around the world, but antifa is not itself an interconnected organization, any more than an ideology like socialism or a tactic like the picket line is a specific group. Antifa are autonomous anti-racist groups that monitor and track the activities of local neo-Nazis. They expose them to their neighbors and employers, they conduct public education campaigns, they support migrants and refugees and they pressure venues to cancel white power events.
The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists.
As a Black woman and survivor of domestic and sexual violence, I am heartened to know there are people like the Antifa who will recognize that the police isn’t here to save us. The police violence against counter-protestors and leniency on white supremacists in Charlottesville and Boston only further undermines that—and that’s without diving into the police brutality, murder, sexual assault and other abuses that occur across the country. How can you expect me to feel protected by the institution that dehumanizes and abuses the most vulnerable in our society—and complains that they’re the true victims because now we want them to be held accountable for their actions on duty? They see Trump protestors as a bigger threat than KKK members. Where’s the series of social media posts of liberal outrage over that?
But really. Did you hear about that Oklahoma police chief who founded a neo-Nazi website?
While Antifa’s most recent claim to fame is physical clashes with Nazis, their work goes way beyond that. They don’t believe that the law alone will save us—and rightly so. Yet I see liberals falling into the trap of seeing an out-of-context photo or video of an alleged Antifa person committing violence and denouncing all of them. That sort of treatment is a common tactic used to dehumanize and spread misinformation about minorities like people of color. It behooves us—the people who are anti-racism—to stop being so quick to believe the hype. As Mark Bray explained in an interview with Vox (emphasis mine):
Much of what they do does not involve physical confrontation. They also focus on using public opinion to expose white supremacists and raise the social and professional costs of their participation in these groups. They want to see these people fired from their jobs, denounced by their families, marginalized by their communities.
Why should anti-racists have a problem with that?
White supremacy works very hard to stay in place and by attacking people who actively work to end it—as opposed to the literal Nazis in the streets—we’re doing exactly what the Nazis want. Antifa resonates with me because they don’t gaslight people of color and Jewish people when they point out racism and anti-Semitism. Antifa doesn’t urge us to ignore white supremacy; they see white supremacists as a real, active threat. They recognize that hate speech is a form of violence and allowing them to call for the death of Jewish, queer, and Black people without any pushback isn’t just wrong—it’s dangerous. Bray elaborates:
The basic principle of antifa is “no platform for fascism.” If you ask them, they’ll tell you that they believe you have to deny any and all platforms to fascism, no matter how big or small the threat. The original fascist groups that later seized power in Europe started out very small. You cannot, they argue, treat these groups lightly.
If you think our moral superiority is solely based on a commitment to non-violence, you are wrong. I know I am on the right side because I believe we’re all humans who deserve equal opportunity—white nationalists don’t. I don’t call for the death for a group of folks—white supremacists do. I am not pushing for the political disenfranchisement of millions—right-wing folks are. I am not strategizing with colleagues about attacking safe havens for marginalized folks like Quaker homes—neo-Nazis are.
By jumping on the anti-Antifa bandwagon, liberals are playing into a right-wing smear campaign which has already pushed a fake photo of Antifa attacking a Charlottesville police officer. And white supremacists create these lies because it’s an effective tactic that takes attention away from them.
Non-violence is great, but that alone cannot save us. Calling for pure non-violence is a tool of white supremacy—urging for dependency on the police to protect ourselves means urging marginalized people to depend on some of their most violent and harmful oppressors. If we use the police as our only defense against white supremacist violence, many more people will die.
So instead of spreading misinformation while complaining about Antifa, let’s look at the real enemy: hatred and bigotry’s sharp rise in the US under Trump. Many of us laughed and didn’t take Trump seriously until it was too late—let’s make sure we don’t let it happen with the rising power of white supremacist hate groups on our soil.
