You will not replace us. You will not replace us. It's been
a year since the fatal "Unite the Right" rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia where White Nationalists and
counter-protesters violently clashed. On Sunday, organizers
of that rally will hold an anniversary demonstration in
Washington, D.C. and thousands of counter protesters led by
groups like Black Lives Matter are planning to meet them. Makia
thank you so much for coming in today. You are an organizer with
the D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter. I want to ask you, a lot
of people that are talking about these rallies and protests that
are being put on by people in the alt-right, people of white
supremacist beliefs, a lot of people say maybe the best course
of action is just to ignore them. What do you think about
that? Why is it so important for groups like Black Lives Matter
to have these counter protests like the one you're planning
this weekend? History shows us that ignoring white supremacy
has never made it go away. When I think of what's happened
locally in D.C., last year, Vanguard America flyered the
University of Maryland's campus for months organizing and
bringing in people for Alt-right views, white supremacists, white
nationalist views. There were nine nooses left around D.C.
There was that same rhetoric of you know, ignoring it is the
best way, no confrontation, and then Richard Collins III was
murdered at that same campus at The University of Maryland. I
think that we have instances of that throughout history and I
think that ignoring white supremacy actually allows it to
grow. Fascism has to be, you have to take a stand to it. You
have to be willing to be responsible for the communities
that make up the society. Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit
about what you guys are actually planning to do this weekend.
Well really it's a march to show our resilience and to show
that this is not a political playground for white supremacist
views. That people actually live here and that the resistance is
much stronger than they think. We really want to get a lot of
images and a lot of folks building and -- how can we
actually exemplify the community that we really want to have?
Right? So, especially centering black and brown people to be
able to feel empowered to stand up to white supremacists and
then having allies there supporting them and supporting
us. That really is the kind of community that we want and
we're really trying to exemplify that and really change
this narrative. What would it look like a year later if the
images that flood the media are images of black and brown people
standing up feeling empowered and using their bodies to say
"I love you" to their community? It would be a very
stark difference from last year with tiki torches and violence
and death. What is the strategy to avoid these protests
devolving into that same violence this year? We have
de-escalators, we have medics, we have safe houses. We've
been planning for two months around this because we also, we
know, we've had last year, Unite the Right the first time.
We've been able to take time in order to plan around that.
And honestly those are just some of the main things that we can
do. At the end of the day, we cannot control the Unite the
Right and we cannot control the police who will be escorting
them. However, Black Lives Matter has a lot of experience
with these mass mobilizations and with confronting the police
who often are protecting white nationalists versus protecting
and serving the D.C. community. So, because we have that
experience, I think that we are going to see all of that play
out. All of the hard work that we've been doing for two
months and even throughout the year.