A Post-Charlottesville Quiz

There’s a lot of back and forth about what happened in Charlottesville*, and I think it’s a good idea to sort out some things in order to keep the conversation sane instead of sensational à la the mainstream media.

So I put together a quiz. It’s open book.

Promise me, though, you’ll question everything you find. Every bit of it, even if something lines up with everything you already know and feel. Especially so, actually.

Some of these questions are easy, and some might challenge you. Or irritate you.

Some of these are trick questions.

Some of these questions have no good answer.

You don’t have to turn in your quiz — honor system and all that, so go ahead and be honest.

The Post-Charlottesville Quiz

• What do you know about the Civil War and how do you know it?
• Did you know anything about the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville before now?
• What do you believe should be done with Confederate monuments and the like?
• Are Southerners racist?
• Are you racist?
• The mayor of Charlottesville established a group of nine individuals (the “Blue Ribbon Commission”) and gave them six months to decide what to do with the statue… What did they decide?
• How many people make up the Charlottesville City Council, and how many voted to remove the statue?
• Were the white nationalist/supremacist group “Unite the Right” and the KKK legally allowed to protest at the Robert E. Lee statue on August 12th?
• Are all conservatives part of Unite the Right?
• Do you know anyone in the KKK?
• How many KKK members are there, anyway?
• How many KKK members were in Charlottesville for the protest?
• Why did the Unite the Right and KKK protestors bring so many guns and weapons?
• Why were they allowed to?
• Were there any conservatives present who were not part of Unite the Right or the KKK?
• How many people were there altogether?
• How many counter-protestors were there and who were they all?
• Were the counter-protesters legally allowed to gather?
• What else was happening on August 12th in Charlottesville in response to the Unite the Right rally?
• “Antifa,” a group of militant leftists, has been around for a while. Why is the media talking so much about them now?
• How long did the city of Charlottesville and the state of Virginia have to prepare for the demonstration on August 12th?
• Why did Virginia’s governor instruct law enforcement to “stand down” as violence erupted?
• What’s the difference between the way law enforcement treated Unite the Right and KKK statue removal protesters in Charlottesville and the way law enforcement treated protestors and water protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota?
• How does Obama’s response to Standing Rock (“Let’s just see how this plays out…”) compare to Trump’s statement that there were “very fine people” on both sides in Charlottesville?
• How many police officers were there within three blocks of the area where Heather Heyer was killed?
• Who responded to help the injured after the Dodge Challenger drove into the crowd?
• Was the violence in Charlottesville preventable, or was it inevitable?
• Some people believe it was orchestrated. How do you feel about that?
• Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in this situation?
• Other than ratings, why do you think the media has been all over this story?
• What are the chances that the media, both right and left, isn’t giving us the complete story on Charlottesville?
• Is what happened in Charlottesville Trump’s fault?
• What’s the payoff for the violence in Charlottesville? In other words, who profits, and what is the currency?

Extra credit questions—

• Where are we on Russia-gate these days?
• Who is that a statue of in the photo above?
• So what should we do about our nation’s inborn racism?

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Let me know what you think by leaving a comment. Heck, turn in your whole quiz or some portion of it in the comments below if you want to.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open, trust your gut, and be good to each other.

Peace and love, shiny friends… lots of peace and love.

(And here are the answers.)

*Charlottesville, Virginia is my hometown.

I was born in Charlottesville. I was raised there. I was just there last month.

I have bunches of cousins and aunts and uncles in Charlottesville, as well as my parents and my sister and the house I go home to.

My family has been in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and Virginia for many, many generations.

And almost thirty years ago I came out of a downtown Charlottesville church one Saturday evening a newlywed, hand in hand with my husband, and just beyond our loved ones flashing pictures of us was the now-infamous Robert E. Lee statue across the street.

The picture above is just another beautiful Charlottesville day—I took it in April. 

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