BY LINDSEY E. JONES • AUG 18, 2017

Let’s be real: The ideological influence of Nazi Germany certainly continues in the present day, which was clear in Charlottesville. Many videos and photographs show “Unite the Right” demonstrators giving the Nazi salute, wearing or displaying Nazi symbols, and chanting “blood and soil” as they marched across the campus of University of Virginia on Aug. 11 and swarmed downtown Charlottesville the next day.
So why not call them “Nazis?” Because while it dramatically signals the reprehensibility of what went down, the term “Nazi” is imprecise, inadequate shorthand to describe the group of white nationalists who gathered over the weekend. The so-called “alt-right,” — which the Southern Poverty Law Center's president says is a rebranding of white nationalism — is an umbrella under which neo-Nazis (that is, contemporary individuals and groups who share an affinity for the racial ideology of Nazi Germany) have certainly found refuge. But the swastikas flown on Charlottesville’s downtown mall don’t begin to capture the full story of the conflict in this city.

A common refrain I’ve since seen across the mediascape — and even at my own church this Sunday by Governor Terry McAuliffe — is the phrase (or an iteration of it): “This is not us.” People want to indicate that the hatred and violence on display in Charlottesville represents some of the worst intolerance that humanity has to offer, that it is not in keeping with the good will that most Americans feel toward one another. Another well-meaning and common response is that the “alt-right” demonstrators should be called “what they are” — meaning, in this case, Nazis. It’s a rhetorical move that rejects the supposedly more polite label of "alt-right."

As both a historian and a person who grew up in small-town Virginia under the shadow of the Confederate battle flag, I look at images from Charlottesville and think that “just call them Nazis” misses a significant point. Although my focus on terminology could be, and has been referred to as, an instance of “When your academic head gets . . . stuck up in your academic ass,” I must insist upon some nuance. Being specific about the varieties of white nationalism and white supremacist ideology on display in Charlottesville can only help those of us who oppose such views and the violence they create.

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