{"id":54804,"date":"2017-08-15T18:17:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T18:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=54804"},"modified":"2017-08-16T14:47:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T14:47:56","slug":"im-a-black-student-at-the-university-of-virginia-what-i-found-when-i-went-back-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=54804","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a black student at the University of Virginia. What I found when I went back Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a black student at the University of Virginia. What I found when I went back Sunday<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Charlotte Observer<\/a>
\nCharlotte, North Carolina
\n2017-08-14<\/p>\n

Brianna Hamblin<\/strong><\/a>, Special to the Observer editorial board<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nBrianna Hamblin<\/small><\/p>\n

Brianna Hamblin, an intern at the Charlotte Observer this summer, is entering her senior year at the University of Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am a student at the University of Virginia, getting ready to start my fourth year. When I looked up to see my city in the news Saturday morning, my heart dropped.<\/p>\n

I was in line to check out of my hotel before catching a flight back to Virginia<\/a> when I saw on CNN, \u201cBREAKING NEWS: STATE OF EMERGENCY IN VA AND VIOLENT WHITE NATIONALIST PROTESTS<\/a>.\u201d The video showed a crowd of people coming from the left and right sides, meeting in the middle with punches. Men in black shirts carrying shields charged from the right. To the left a woman was punched. In the top corner of the TV Screen: Charlottesville, Virginia<\/a>…<\/p>\n

One person has been confirmed dead and 19 people injured after a car plowed into a crowd<\/a> marching peacefully in downtown Charlottesville, Va.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t happening in a poor foreign country. This wasn\u2019t in a big city hundreds of miles away from my family and friends. This was happening down the street from my apartment.<\/p>\n

I have been reporting and helping other reporters tell the story of the controversy surrounding the Robert E. Lee<\/a> and \u201cStonewall\u201d Jackson<\/a> statues since summer of 2015. I\u2019ve listened to every opinion on the subject, but after this weekend I believe that Americans have been shown their answer. We can no longer deny the symbol of white supremacy that the statues are for these men when they chant \u201cBlood and Soil\u201d \u2013 a Nazi Germany<\/a> chant \u2013 and \u201cJews will not replace us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an African American woman, I already know that I am everything they hate. I am light-skinned with German ancestry. I am an exact representation of the \u201cwhite genocide\u201d they fear. That did not stop me from driving back to Charlottesville Sunday night. I ignored family members and friends who told me not to go. I held my breath as I drove past the rotunda, trying to imagine what it looked like when hundreds of men with torches marched on it…<\/p>\n