The anti-Semitic rhetoric of the alt-right and white supremacists witnessed in Charlottesville, Virginia is slightly similar to Christian rhetoric against the Jews seen during the eighteenth century ( Dossey, 2018) . The white supremacist's rally in Charlottesville was motivated by the essence to help conserve the American "white culture." The race and terror chaos in Charlottesville started when the government of Virginia decided to bring down statutes of white forefathers arguing that they represented the spirit of racism and slavery which was a vice African-Americans and Americans in general have tried so hard to eliminate. The white supremacists through their "Unite the Right" rally, wanted to protect the statute of Robert E. Lee as a sign of conserving and defending the white culture and confederacy legacy.
The main aim of the rally became distorted and took a different direction entirely as the white supremacists started chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans such as "Jews will not replace us" and they also borrowed Nazi ideology such as "blood and soil" while demonstrating. From the Vice documentary, the level of hatred is evident in the tone of voice of one white supremacist's demonstrator who says that the city of Virginia is run by Jewish communists and criminal niggers (Pei , 2017). The African-Americans viewed the demonstration as a mockery as it appeared to them as if the white supremacists were celebrating the enslavement of Africans and their descendants by going against the toppling down of white supremacists statues like that of Robert E. Lee who was the champions of human slavery.
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A look at Christianity and anti-Semitism shows that Christians and Christianity groups became hostile to the Jews. A lot was witnessed during this period as Christians showered the Jews with hatred and dislike as they believed that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, there was competition between churches and synagogue, and a general misinterpretation of the Jewish way of life and practices (Williamson, 2017) . The resultant of this hatred was Christians showing violent tendencies and behavior against the Jews and even murder in the Holocaust. The case witnessed in Charlottesville is not different from what Jews experienced in the hands of Christians during the eighteenth century. White supremacists like David Duke used the demonstrations and riots as an avenue to channel their anger, hatred, and bigotry against the African Americans and Jews who he thinks have infested their cities, controlling the media and the American political system. The riots and demonstrations led to violence and loss of lives. As seen in the documentary, antagonist groups can be seen attacking and throwing blows at each other. White nationalist speaker Christopher Cantwell even got mace in the dispute. A car also ram into a group of protesters who were chanting “Black lives matter" slogans, killing and injuring others.
There is a slight fundamental difference between the Christian rhetoric against Jews and the anti-Semitic rhetoric of the alt-right. In Christian rhetoric against Jews, the source of conflict, hatred, and violence was religiously based while the alt-right rhetoric by the white supremacists was political. The hostility between Christians and Jews can be traced back during the reign of the Roman Empire, a time when Christianity was considered an illegal religion and most Christians were persecuted for their belief and faith (Burns , 2014). Christians thus became hostile to the Jews during Christian anti-Semitism which led to contempt for the Jews, murder, humiliation, and violence (Lieu et al., 2013) . The violent rally in Charlottesville can be argued to be a situation of a broader political identity context. The chaos can be viewed to result from differed agreement from two groups of different political divide and identity. When the two groups disagree, there is always criticism, revolt, and backlash from the opposing group which feels as if it is losing their political grasp and place in the society.
References
Burns, D. M. (2014). Care or Prayer? Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with trypho 1.4 revisited. Vigiliae Christianae , 68 (2), 178-191.
Dossey, L. (2018). The Shock of Charlottesville: Unmasking Racism in Healthcare. Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing , 14 (1), 1-9.
Lieu, J., North, J., & Rajak, T. (Eds.). (2013). The Jews among pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire . Routledge.
Pei, S. (2017). White Supremacism and Racial Conflict in the Trump Era. International Critical Thought , 7 (4), 592-601.
Williamson, C. M. (2017). Has God Rejected His People? Anti-Judaism in the Christian Church . Wipf and Stock Publishers.
