Last weekend, the United States was forced to contend with shocking displays of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ahead of the scheduled removal of a statue of Confederate leader General Robert E Lee, white nationalist campaigners clashed with counter-protesters, and a car drove into a crowd of these protesters, injuring 19 and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/zdroberts/status/896519908795854848]] In the wake of the incident, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe strongly condemned the violence that ensued, and told the protesters to leave the country, describing them as "not Americans". The United States has seen a dramatic spike in race-motivated hate crimes since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, and most political pundits are at a loss as to the cause of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, not to mention the root of the simmering racial tension in the United States. One rapper, however, has bizarrely identified a specific celebrity as the catalyst for the uprising of white supremacists in America: Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the Kardashian Clan. You may remember Irv Gotti as the founder of the record label known as The Inc, but in an Instagram post that has since been deleted, Gotti laid the blame at the door of the Kardashians, and specifically their preference for dating black men. Gotti believes this has had such a profound effect on some white men they have taken to white nationalism, and asserts this also plays in President Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again". [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BXvV6CoDViH/]] "F*ck it. Let’s talk about it right now. This is what they hate right now. With a passion. Bruce Jenner and Kris Jenner’s daughter. Arguably the HOTTEST CHICK ON THE PLANET!! Dated Tyga!! Now dating Travis Scott!! 2 RAP N*GGAS!! I think when Trump says. LETS MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. I think he is saying LETS GET OUR WOMEN BACK!! Cause the Hip Hop Culture has f*cked up the whole sh*t. F*ck it. I’m gonna say it. THE KARDASHIAN CLAN AND THE TWO JENNER DAUGHTERS. Has f*cked up the whole world." [sic] It remains to be seen if Irv Gotti's assertion is true. So far, he has failed to reconcile the discrepancy between Kylie Jenner's birthday (August 10, 1997) with the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, America's primary white supremacist group (December 24, 1865). On Twitter, Irv Gotti has been heavily criticised for his outspoken opinion. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/T_dot_Lee_PhD/status/896798688017870848]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/richkiddbeats/status/896768442723946496]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/whoa_itsimani/status/896775926071136256]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Nicoley410/status/896777624458059776]] Despite his comments, Gotti has claimed there's no ill will on his part for the Kardashians, admitting that he "love[s] them and their success", saying that Kylie's mother Kris Jenner is a "f***ing genius" for building such an extensive socialite empire. Racism is a much more nuanced and complicated situation than Gotti is describing. White nationalism definitely did not arise with the popularity of the Kardashians, and the violence that occurred in Charlottesville last weekend tragically reflects the fact that despite decades of progress in civil rights, the United States still has a long way to go before achieving true racial equality.

In the aftermath of the events at Charlottesville, it's clear that society needs to be paying closer attention to those who ascribe to the harmful ideology behind the far right. Organised by white supremacist groups, the Unite The Right rally was held on Saturday, August 12th to protest the removal of a statue of a confederate icon, General Robert E. Lee. Violent clashes quickly broke out after the rally was met by counter-protestors. The Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe was compelled to declare a state of emergency late on Saturday morning after alt-right supporter James Alex Fields ploughed his vehicle into swarms of counter-protestors, fatally injuring 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Fields has since been charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody. [[heroimage||https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/revealed-the-tube-line-that-londoners-hate-the-most-082117?cid=eml~GB_LON~NL~1401180675~&refid=email-1401180675~Title~&UID=14190466487]] A poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post examined the public response to the tragedy at Charlottesville. As well as discovering that a whopping 56 per cent of the population was dissatisfied with Trump's response to the violence in the Virginian city, the poll determined that almost one in 10 American citizens believe it's permissible to have white nationalist views. The poll concludes that 9 per cent of Americans or 22 million people are accepting of those who harbour neo-Nazi views. In addition, nearly 10 per cent actively support alt-right organisations. Perhaps these figures can be linked with the astonishing number of Holocaust deniers in America. The poll's results will not surprise those who have been tracking Donald Trump's historically low overall approval rating. Whilst the 45th President of the United States and his supporters insist that such figures are meaningless, it's clear that when poll after poll shows ever-growing dissatisfaction, something isn't right. Not only do nearly 60 per cent of American citizens disapprove of Trump's performance, but another poll conducted by NBC/Marist Polls claims that his job approval rating stands below 40 per cent in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - three states which ironically helped him come out victorious against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Certainly, the ABC News/The Washington Post poll uncovered that 42 per cent of those who were polled believed that their president put the white supremacist groups on "equal standing" as the counter-protestors. ABC News and The Washington Post conversed with over 1,000 people between the 16th and 20th August to determine these statistics. The error margin is 3.5 points. In other news, a man has denounced his racist views after joining the army with Mexican soldiers. [[citation||Hero Image Credit: NBC News]]

Protestors have picketed the house of a US Army soldier charged with assaulting a Black man he said was "in the wrong neighborhood".

Jonathan Pentland, a 42-year-old Army sergeant and drill instructor at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, was been charged with third-degree assault and battery earlier this week.

This comes after a video emerged on social media on Monday of Pentland threatening the young Black man at the Lakes at Barony Place; a gated community in Richland County located in the Summit neighborhood of South Carolina.

Take a look at the footage of the incident below:

A large number of people have since begun protesting outside Pentland's property, with some participants taking pictures and live streaming the event.

The protest began peacefully, with those involved directing traffic and ordering pizzas, while others made speeches to show solidarity with the local black community.

However, a later thread from a Twitter user going by the handle @SSaJC shows that one protestor later smashed outdoor lights on the Pentland property and broke a window before other participants calmed him down.

The police arrived shortly thereafter and broke up the crowds.

Check out these images from the protest:

Pentland has been issued a personal recognizance bond, and if found guilty of the above charges, he faces 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.

The three-minute-long video, which was posted on social media by a woman named Shadae McCallum, shows an irate Pentland angrily asking his victim (identified only as Deandre) what he was doing near his property.

When Deandre responded that he was only out for a walk, Pentland became more incensed; slapping Deandre's phone out of his hand and violently shoving him.

Pentland can be heard stating:

"You're in the wrong neighborhood motherf*****. Get out. I ain't playing with you.

"I'm about to show you what I can do. You either walk away or I'm going to carry your a** out of here."

As of the time of writing, the original tweet has since accrued over 1.3 million views on Twitter alone.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels

President Donald Trump's administration has proved itself to be more divisive than ever in the aftermath of the Charlottesville protests. After asserting that "both sides" are to blame for the tragedy wherein three people were killed and 19 others injured, the 45th President of the United States has been lambasted for failing to condone the actions of the white supremacist groups that were involved. On Saturday, August 12th violence broke out after a Unite The Right rally organized by white nationalists was met by furious counter-protestors. The alt-right took to the Virginian city to protest the removal of a statue of the Confederate leader, General Robert E. Lee. The violence escalated quickly and culminated in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed after a sworn white supremacist by the name of James Fields veered his car into groups of counter-protestors. Fields has subsequently been charged with second-degree murder. "I will tell you something", Trump began at a press conference at his Trump Tower. "You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent." Whilst Trump clearly denounced the violence in this controversial statement, he refused to name-and-shame the alt-right groups who proudly wielded torches and shouted: "Jews won't replaces us!".  He continued: "nobody wants to say that. I'll say it right now," whilst his advisors stared at the floor, ashen faced and all too aware that such assertions would lead to far-reaching political condemnation. And condemnation did they receive. ABC News released a poll in conjunction with the Washington Post on Monday, showing that only 28 per cent approved of how Trump dealt with the Charlottesville protests, while a whopping 56 per cent disapproved. This 56 per cent have found rather novel ways to express their disapproval. A father disowned his son for being involved in the Unite The Right rally in a passionate letter, while Spotify removed all white supremacist hate groups from the steaming platform. Now, three business-savvy students from San Luis Obispo, California, have created lipsticks under the name Lip Slut to raise money for the Charlottesville victims. Clearly achieving their aim to be "fashion, subversion, and a middle finger to the current political landscape," Lip Slut sells only one product: a liquid lipstick in the shade "F*ck Trump". Described as a "balanced, mid-tone nude pink", the shade highlights all of the things that Trump's presidency has not been; balanced, warm, flattering, smooth and consistent. If you're not already sold, Lip Slut states that they are "50% towards charity, 100% against tyranny, and of course, 100% cruelty free." Before the events at Charlottesville, customers could donate 50 per cent of the proceeds towards a women's charity. However, in the aftermath of the protests, Lip Slut has allowed people to donate 100 per cent of the proceeds to victims of the tragedy. They can choose to pay off medical bills or help out BLM Charlottesville or the Albemarle-Charlottesville arm of the NAACP. One of the founders of Lip Slut, Katie Sones talked to her college newspaper Mustang News about the motivation behind the company: “People are going to buy lipstick either way, so if you could do that and have the money go somewhere that you support, that would be perfect,” she said.  "We want to integrate philanthropy into everyday life; why not support something you care about?” And certainly, Lip Slut have stated that sales have been up tenfold since they introduced this charitable structure. You can discover the lipsticks here. In other coverage on Charlottesville, Spotify has decided to remove white supremacist bands from the streaming service in the aftermath of the violent clashes.

If the last year and a half has taught us anything about the state of political opinion in America, it's that a lot of people are still patently racist. The country has seen white supremacist rallies taking place in major cities, a hard crackdown on immigrants from so-called "s**thole countries", and a worrying increase in hate crimes against Muslim people.

In fact, at least one academic paper found that "Trump's Tweets on Islam-related topics are highly correlated with anti-Muslim hate crime after, but not before the start of his presidential campaign", indicating that the president's actions can be linked to at least some anti-Islam attacks.

More recently, though, there has been a spate of high-profile racist incidents involving black Americans being reported to police for literally just going about their business. This time, it's for delivering newspapers.

Brandie Sharp, who lives in Upper Arlington, Ohio, was out delivering newspapers last Friday with her two sons, 12-year-old Uriah and 17-year-old Mycah, when she was stopped by police and asked what she was doing. Sharp explained that she was delivering papers, and had just sent her son back to retrieve some that were accidentally left at the wrong addresses.

When he seemed surprised, she asked, "Why are you questioning me about this?"

Apparently, someone had called the police on them.

In a report on ABC6, an audio clip of the call in question was played.

"It looked like at first they were delivering newspapers or something, but I noticed they were walking up to the houses with nothing in hand and one of them came back with something," a woman can be heard saying in the recording. "I mean, I don't want to say something was going on, but it just but it just seemed kind of suspicious."

In response, Sharp posted this message on Facebook:

[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/brandie.sharp/posts/10212139882229233]]

"What was suspicious at 5:30 in the evening? What was this big, you know, reasoning that you had to call the police?" she said in a TV interview. "Something as simple as delivering papers and it turns out to be I have to be racially profiled?"

Bryan McKean, an Arlington police officer, said that the caller had reported the "incident" after witnessing Sharp and her sons walking repeatedly back and forth to their car, dropping things off in the vehicle along the way. Law enforcement, McKean says, responded accordingly.

"Our officer could see that they were probably delivering newspapers, but he wasn't sure, so he pulled up next to the car, did not exit the vehicle, and asked if they were selling door to door," he said.

"She said 'No, I'm delivering papers,' and produced some paperwork with the delivery route on it. He said, 'Ok, have a good day,' or something like it, pulled away, and waved to the little boy as he drove off."

He then added: "If she feels that our agency didn't act appropriately or with anything less than respect, we encourage her to contact us."

As insignificant as this may seem to some people, it is yet another reminder to many that black people are perceived with suspicion in the USA, and that prejudice against them is still as strong as it ever was. For as long as incidents like this continue, America cannot hope to achieve equality amongst all races.