"On the morning of the Unite the Right rally, I lumbered down the staircase of a Catskills Airbnb rented for a bachelor party to learn that only hours before, a gang of white nationalists stormed the University of Virginia campus wielding Tiki torches and chanting, 'Jews will not replace us.'"
"By the time I got back to Brooklyn, where I'd been crashing with the soon-to-be newlyweds, the haze curdled into indignation and shame. I had wasted a weekend killing brain cells and hiking in sandals toward nonexistent watering holes while an innocent woman was dead 300 miles away."
"For two years, I had been living in Atlanta, where I was due back later that week to prepare for another semester of teaching freshman English to computer science majors training to engineer universal obsolescence."
The author recounts experiences surrounding the Unite the Right rally, reflecting on feelings of shame and indignation after witnessing white nationalists' actions. Living in Atlanta during the Trump presidency, the author struggled to reconcile personal beliefs with regional norms. The narrative captures a sense of disillusionment and the impact of political events on personal life, highlighting a feeling of living in a totalitarian environment. The author contrasts past experiences with current realities, emphasizing a loss of innocence and the weight of societal issues.
Read at The Nation
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