meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Slate News

White Supremacy on Trial in Charlottesville

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.56K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s been over four years since white supremacists gathered in a violent and deadly demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia. Now, nine people are suing the organizers and groups involved with the Unite the Right rally as they try to prove the protest was a conspiracy to commit racially-motivated violence. This isn’t the first time white supremacists have been taken to court -- but could this trial spell real consequences?


Guest: Kathleen Belew, a historian at the University of Chicago, and the author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America and A Field Guide to White Supremacy.


If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In a federal courtroom in Charlottesville, Virginia, there's a trial going on, which is day by day revealing the inner thoughts of some of America's most prominent racists.

0:16.8

Some of these men you might have heard of, people like neo-Nazis Richard Spencer or Jason Kessler or self-proclaimed shock jock Christopher Cantwell.

0:26.7

But their names aren't actually that important.

0:30.5

What's more important is what they've done.

0:34.0

They're accused of orchestrating the violence of the 2017, Unite the Right rally.

0:38.8

You probably remember the images from that August weekend.

0:48.0

The white supremacists carrying teaky torches, chanting, you will not replace us.

0:54.0

The explosion of brutality that followed when a man

0:57.5

drove his car into a crowd, killing a woman named Heather Hire and injuring others.

1:02.9

Left this fuck off. This is our town now.

1:09.9

Four years later, the man who drove that car, he's been sentenced to life in prison.

1:16.7

The Confederate statues, these men came to Charlottesville to defend.

1:20.8

They've been torn down.

1:23.3

But the organizations that brought so many people together on mass, they still exist.

1:30.9

And this trial, it's called Sines v. Kessler, is intended to bring these organizations down.

1:38.4

What we're talking about is a organized event with implications for multiple activists, multiple groups,

1:47.5

multiple leaders, and also rank and file members of the white power and militant right movement.

1:53.4

Kathleen Ballou calls herself a historian of the present. Her specialty is white supremacy.

1:58.7

She looks at this trial and sees echoes of trials that have come before.

2:03.4

This is a movement that has been with us since the late 1970s has over and over again attacked American infrastructure,

2:12.3

civilians, leaders, people, religious houses of worship, that goes on and on like this.

2:18.5

Kathleen says, what's notable about this case is that the plaintiffs are trying to hold an

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.