Memorial Day Weekend in Virginia Beach.

For some, like myself and my family, Memorial Day is the day we have to remember those who we love and lost. The people who signed up to fight for this country and died doing exactly that. We will never see them again, but we keep their memory alive.

For others, it’s the unofficial start to Summer. The time where families are traveling, likely to our Oceanfront to take a break from the rigors of the spring. As custom to our economic enthusiasm, they’ll probably do some shopping or barbecuing in place of their commemoration of the solomn day.

And yet, there are still others who wish to commemorate the holiday by openly and brazenly signaling their desire to eliminate non-whites from all of America. Despite the historic record of clarity that our diversity is this nation’s strength, some refuse to see that truth. By any reasonable metric, the expansion of culture and ethnic parity has tangibly made this nation greater than it was in it’s prior inception. However, some of us refuse to see the magic that makes America. They confuse patriotism for nationalism. They’re not loyal to the country. They’re loyalty is bound to is to racial superiority.

On Saturday, May 23, the group called the Patriot Front gathered at the very Virginia Beach Oceanfront families go the spend Memorial Day and marched flags symbolizing white supremacy and xenophobia. In an accompanied video they expressed their goal to reclaim this continent for their race. But their true goal was aggressively apparent: intimidation.

The Patriot Front was born out of the aftermath of the Unite the Right Rally in 2017, which was responsible for the death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Alt Right Knights, and the Nationalist Front, which included Vanguard America, the predecessor to the Patriot Front clashed with counterprotesters, and in being called out for their hate, they acted upon it. They showed their true colors and there was no mistaking the intentions of Vanguard America. Rebranding itself the Patriot Front because Heather Heyer’s murdered identified himself with the group, they’ve continued thrive in a nation that insist their brand of hate is an element of the past. But they survived and walk among us, hating us the entire time. The group is grounded in white nationalism. They are antisemitic, anti-immigrant and deeply believe in racial superiority. They are indeed racist.

And while it took local activists a matter of hours to spread the word that our city has been infected by the hate group, it took local news well into the week to report the publicity stunt. But where the intentions, optics and utter repugnance was and is easy to perceive, the public reaction has not met the moment.

In the last few months, Virginia Beach has had a few incidents of multiple shootings, which has generated a strikingly public and political response. The Patriot Front, wore mask and marched down the boardwalk just for the sake of visibility. There was nothing preventing them from doing so. Law enforcement did not impede their gathering. So with the contrast of criminal activity to racist but legal activity, the online response has come to the defense of their rights of speech or to purposely point out that the group was being nonviolent, as if that makes what they’re saying okay.

“At least they’re not buring buildings.”

“They’re just marching, what’s the big deal?”

“They have a right to protest like everyone else.”

“They didn’t cause trouble. I don’t see the problem.”

The “problem” is clear.  Hate IS the problem. Racism IS a big deal. It’s so obvious that, when ignored, it creates a new problem. The fact that it goes unacknowledged and the behavior and belief are not immediately rejected, that becomes the greater threat than any overt racist could ever be.

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Birmingham Campaign to address the severe racism and segregation crippling life of Black men and women in the city. Early in the campaign Dr. King was arrested and while incarcerated, he wrote an open letter regarding his observations of the impediment to freedom. In his letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. King leveed his most pointed criticism to a very specific group of people.  He pointed a bold finger at the “white moderate” as the greatest stumbling block for racial equality. Greater than Ku Klux Klaner, the “white moderate” is the same sort of people that ignore the words and actions of the Patriot Front and insist on their persistence. He said they might agree with the ultimate goal of racial equality but strictly object to the actions necessary to achieve that goal. Those actions include calling it out when it is seen.  This is the type of person that favor the absence of tension over the presence of true justice. They believe peace is quiet and ignorance is fairness.

It isn’t.

The Patriot Front doesn’t go away if you ignore them. Using crosswalks and obeying traffic laws is just as effective as the mask they wear. They hide behind social acceptance. And it’s no surprise that it takes the Civil disobediance that was the language of the Civil Rights activist of the past and the Gen Z protestor like Heather Heyer to even be heard and a hate group follows the law to mask their hate. They tell their members to not discuss firearms and to join after military discharge. Their strength is their secrecy.  Civil Rights and Social Justice cannot hide. But the white supremacist hides behind the enlightened centrist that refuses to disavow them. And until we ALL, everyone with the bare minimum of human decency, point them out and force them to own their indecency, the weak will continue to hide in plain sight.