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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen white kids go full Nazi it's somehow OUR fault, because reasons
What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-RightWhen my son Sam,* who was then 14, asked me to take him to the Mother of All Rallies on the Mall in September 2017, I said no. The pro-Trump event was billed as a demonstration to preserve traditional American culture, and white supremacists were expected to show up in force. Not only was this not how I wanted to spend a Saturdaylike almost everyone I knew, Id been devastated by the 2016 election resultsbut I had serious concerns about safety. At Charlottesvilles Unite the Right rally only a month earlier, a neo-Nazi had killed counterprotester Heather Heyer. I couldnt shake off the shock of her violent murder, or of watching men with tiki torches shout racist slogans across the University of Virginia grounds. Police there were unable to protect citizens; I couldnt reasonably expect this gathering in DC to be any different.
Sam knew exactly how I would react to his request. Hed anticipated my automatic veto and readied reasons in favor of attendingnot as a participant, he stressed, but as an observer. I can still see him standing in front of me, the longing apparent in his big brown eyes. His favorite school subject was history, he reminded me, and he hungered to witness a genuinely significant event firsthand. As he would tell me later: I wanted to be part of something big.
The rally was just a half-hour Metro ride from our home in Washingtons outer suburbsso he could make the trip alone, he assured me, flashing the transit app on his phone.
His case was well thought out, his explanations admirable. In fact, they were perfectly (too perfectly?) reverse-engineered to match my own values. Id always preached to him the importance of seeing things for yourself before making a decision, of talking to people individually to understand what motivated them.
Still, I suspected I was being had.
https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/05/05/what-happened-after-my-13-year-old-son-joined-the-alt-right/
hunter
(38,354 posts)I said the author of this article sounds like the mom of any other gangster you read about in the news and I stand by that. I am not sympathetic. I also don't trust that her kid has miraculously changed. It seems too likely he's figured out what his mom wants to hear. This mom may be telling herself what she wants to hear as well -- that she herself is not any kind of racist. So many white people claim to be "colorblind" and other such nonsense. They haven't a fucking clue. Racism is insidious.
Yeah, I am a damned cynical son of a bitch. I was raised that way by a fierce mother.
Oh no! I used THAT word and my mom may be reading this... laughing her ass off.
I was also struck by how permissive she is. No way I would have let my son at 13 mod an adult website with other adults to begin with, let alone an alt-right one. She seems particularly naive and clueless.
hunter
(38,354 posts)... and got our house IP Address banned.
I was at once both irritated and proud.
We lightly supervised our children's internet use and mostly they didn't disappoint us.
msongs
(67,509 posts)hunter
(38,354 posts)That explains so much of my life!
My middle and high school experience was Lord of the Flies.
Quitting high school for college is one of the best decisions I've ever made.
This was before the GED. I simply said "no more!" My parents and the principal worked out the details. My college experiences as a minor were a little weird, but at least there were no bullies lurking around the corners to call me queerbait before they beat me bloody.
My younger sister did have the benefit of the GED. She took the test, knew she passed, and never returned to her high school. The high school was okay with that. They didn't want to see my sister, or our mom, ever again.
Curiously, of all my siblings, it's my sister and I who've got the heavyweight university degrees, and postgraduate degrees and certificates, as they sometimes call it in statistical surveys.
So far as I know, our middle and high school "permanent records" are lost.
In my case high school administrators probably disposed of them in the shredder.