Last week, I read that the same Neo-Nazi, white supremacist group that held the “Unite the Right” rally of hate in Charlottesville, Virginia is coming to Shelbyville, TN and the Middle Tennessee area to hold several “White Lives Matter” rallies on Saturday, October 28. In the name of several groups like “Nationalist Front," “League of the South," “The National Socialist Movement,” and “Traditionalist Workers Party," a mass group of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists will be advocating their beliefs of hatred against minorities and immigrants in a town comprised of a 22.2% Hispanic population, an 11.3% African American population, and an overall 38.26% minority population.
Only 37 years ago in 1980, the Ku Klux Klan, who currently supports President Trump, paraded the streets of Shelbyville and occupied the outside of “Bright Temple Church of God in Christ — a predominately African-American church...and passing out fliers on the corner” - Natalie Nelson, USA Today Network.
I am from the small town of Bell Buckle, TN, which is a five minute drive down Highway 82 from Shelbyville. I cannot say that I was surprised to read that a “White Lives Matter” rally was going to be held in Bedford County, but it was a sickening feeling of disgust and contempt nonetheless. Knowing that uninvited proponents of hate and racism are going to be parading the streets of my home region makes me unexplainably angry. Growing up, I would always notice when an abnormally large truck flew the confederate flag behind it so proudly, but as a child, I was always told that it was simply a display of pride in being from the South. This concept never registered to me, why someone would be so proud as to fly a flag representing hundreds of years of enslaving and dehumanizing African American people for the South’s own economic benefit. I also couldn’t, and still cannot, comprehend how one could have the conscience to express this so-called “pride” in institutions and platforms that were built by enslaved people. And now, emboldened by our President and his administration of exclusion and discrimination, white supremacists feel comfortable and entitled to express their beliefs of pure hatred.
Growing up in a town with a population of only 519 people, there comes an obligation to educate yourself on matters that exist beyond your town, county, state, and country, and that goes for anyone. There also exists an obligation to critically analyze the rhetoric and political and social customs by which I found myself surrounded throughout my childhood. While I appreciate Bell Buckle and the memories it provided me for a lifetime, I cannot and will never say that I am proud to be from the South. Anyone who supports this upcoming rally or the White Lives Matter, white supremacist, and Neo-Nazi movements in general, either actively or passively, is no friend or acquaintance of mine.
A positive aspect I’ve seen coming from the situation is the forceful response against the White Lives Matter rally in Shelbyville. Residents are holding “Daily Vigils Against Hate” on the Thursday and Friday leading up to the event taking place on Saturday, October 28. The same day of the rally, residents will host the Shelbyville Cookout for Community Unity along with a counterprotest “Reject Hate Groups in Shelbyville”. Also, the Chair of the Bedford County Democratic Party, Sharon Edwards, stated that “As a white person, I feel like it’s my job to stand up to other white people who are saying these things. I was born and raised here. We love where we live. We love everyone in it. And they don’t get to come into the town and speak for us.”
