This is 'a march of the Ku Klux Klan': MSNBC panelist nails Unite the Right rally for changing 'the name to make it nice'
An MSNBC panel was short on patience for the Nazi and white supremacist protesters at the Unite the White rally in Washington, DC Sunday.
"I don't call this a white supremacist march," said John Jay College Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall. "I call it a march of the Ku Klux Klan, because that's what it is. And they have changed the name to make it fancy and make it nice and palatable. And their argument being made is an argument that could have been made in 1925 when the Ku Klux Klan marched in Washington, D.C., the first time."
She went on to call it absurd that these Nazis and white supremacists "are somehow enslaved" because the rest of America doesn't want to share their country with them.
"So, the sense that they're the victim in this is really the sad part and the fact that Donald Trump continues to pour gasoline on those flames -- I mean, this idea of victimization means these people are going to do whatever it takes to control their country," she continued. "And that's what the Klan believed from the beginning when slavery ended in 1865 and what we're dealing with now in 2018."
NBCBLK Editorial Director Todd Johnson wondered what exactly the purpose was of having just a few dozen people come to Washington to commemorate the 2017 Charlottesville riots.
"What is the goal of even, you know, a couple dozen folks showing up, trying to proclaim that this country is somehow theirs and no one else's?" Johnson asked. "And, I think we saw this a lot during the election, leading up to Donald Trump's election as president. His voters, his supporters, talked about they were the silent majority, not wanting to necessarily put a face on some of these elements, that anti-racist activists abhor so much."
Watch the full panel discussion below:
MSNBC graphic on family separation by the Trump administration.[/caption]