We Must Support More "Charlottesviles" in the Future

The City of Charlottesville resembles the best of a rural college town despite its problems. Economically, the town depends on balancing the relationships and interests of students with its residents. Historically, issues of racism, opportunity, class, crime and politics have embroiled the city and the campus of the University of Virginia as deeply as the recently revealed DNA connections between Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved Sally Hemings. These truths about Charlottesville always have been known yet all too painful to acknowledge publicly, at least until recently. Charlottesville became a dangerous and symbolic meeting place for white male outrage masquerading as resistance to the removal of a confederate statue. But it could easily have been one of the other "Charlottesvilles" in the U.S. Richmond, New Orleans, Lexington, Charleston or Austin to name just a few where Confederate statues still exist, and time-delayed questions about our racial, gender, ethnic and religious symbols have evoked emotional dialogue if not outright change. Take, for example, the killings at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, two years ago, which, later on, did more than bring down a Confederate flag whose presence above the courthouse had weathered efforts to remove it for decades.