A Reflection Following July 4th
Authored by: Mighty Girl
There were no burning torches this time. The young white supremacists who marched through Washington, DC on July 4th have traded the white hoods of their grandfathers for white face masks. As hundreds of Patriot Front members -- wearing khaki pants, navy shirts, beige caps, faces hidden behind white coverings and sunglasses -- rode the DC metro into the city yesterday, Reuters photographer Cheney Orr captured an evocative photograph. In the frame, a young Black woman sits surrounded by men in masks. Composed, looking straight ahead, she doesn't shrink or cower. She is the only person whose face you can see.
Anyone who knows American history knows what that image echoes. The hoods that once hid the faces of men who waved crosses and flags as they marched through American towns, terrorizing Black communities. And on the other side of it, the women who refused to move. Rosa Parks, arrested for refusing to give up her seat. Claudette Colvin, fifteen years old, arrested nine months before Parks for the same defiance. Add to them the countless Black women whose names never made the history books, who stood and sat and held their ground against organized hatred. The robes became khakis. The courage that meets the men who hide their faces hasn't changed.
Patriot Front formed in 2017 out of the wreckage of the deadly "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On July 4th, several hundred masked Patriot Front members marched from Union Station toward the Capitol behind drummers, carrying American flags, upside-down American flags, and Confederate flags, chanting about reclaiming America.
They dress all this in red, white, and blue and call themselves patriots. Everything about the group is engineered to look respectable at a glance. It is hatred packaged for people who would never wear a hood but will happily wear a face mask and call it heritage. But scratch the patriotism and you find the oldest hatred in the country underneath, wearing a new costume.
The group's own manifesto is clear about the goal: a country that belongs to white people and no one else. To be American, it insists, is a matter of blood, not ink -- inherited through European ancestry. It is the same sentence, rewritten, that this country has been trying to strike from its founding for two hundred and fifty years -- the one that said some people were three-fifths and some people were property. They have only changed the vocabulary. The claim is identical: that America has a bloodline, and that yours either qualifies or it doesn't.
These are men who insist they are the true heirs of America, the blood and bone of the nation, yet they will not let you see who they are. It is the posture of men who know that if their neighbors, their coworkers, their mothers saw their faces in that line, there would be a price to pay. There is no courage in their convictions, only shame.
In this photograph, the courage of only one person shines through: the woman who refused to cower when surrounded by hate-filled men in masks. That is the difference between cowardice dressed up as strength and the real thing.
To learn more about the white nationalist groups operating across the country -- including their ideologies, histories, and where they are active -- visit the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Map and Extremist Files
For an eye-opening look at how today's far right recruits young people in plain sight -- through clothing, gyms, and online spaces -- we recommend "Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right" (Bookshop) and Amazon
For an inside look at what modern white supremacy actually is and how to recognize it, we recommend "The Hate Next Door: Undercover within the New Face of White Supremacy" (Bookshop) and Amazon
The time to talk to children and teens about taking a stand against hatred and prejudice of all kinds is now -- for books to make these conversations easier, visit our blog post “60 Mighty Girl Books About Standing Up for Others”
For stories for children that encourage them to take a stand on behalf of others -- even in the face of opposition -- we recommend "Dare" for ages 4 to 8, "The Hundred Dresses" for ages 6 to 10, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" for ages 9 to 13, and "Wolf Hollow" for ages 10 and up
For an excellent book to help give kids the confidence to stand up for themselves and others against bullying or intolerance, we highly recommend “Stand Up For Yourself and Your Friends” for age 7 to 12
To inspire children and teens with more stories of real-life girls and women who fought for change and stood up for justice, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change"
For more books about girls and women confronting prejudice in many forms - be it due to gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, or religion - visit our "Prejudice & Discrimination" book section
To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign up for A Mighty Girl's free email newsletter
Back to Notes