A Nazi hit me in the head Saturday

A Nazi hit me in the head Saturday. Another shoulder-slammed me. The CPD sergeant politely suggested I walk out of range of the Sieg Heils or even walk in the street rather than close enough to be in range of swinging arms. I was, as often before, in a wonderland where it was my fault; it was my responsibility to avoid people suddenly flailing their arms around in Nazi salutes. It was my responsibility to avoid the SS-Sturmbannführer (or whatever Nazi rank he uses) striding imperiously up and down the sidewalk chanting hate rhymes. CPD was avoiding confrontation. The peace must be kept even if it means letting fascists own the sidewalk. I was a young child in Flint, Michigan. My brother, my cousin, and I were riding bikes up Eddington to Saginaw and down the next street. As we rode back down, a man shouted for us to stay off his sidewalk. He didn’t like the color of my cousin’s skin. My mother told us to tell him the sidewalks belong to everyone.

Back to Saturday: 15 minutes before I was struck by the Nazi, I was unloading my car for a concert at The Vanderelli Room. I heard racial epithets hurled at people near me in the alley. I looked up and saw a squad of Nazis marching along Rich Street. They all wore a uniform of black pants, red sweatshirts, black ski masks. The masks were not for Covid protection. One of them wore a military helmet and carried a serious-looking automatic-looking rifle. They were marching right down the sidewalk, bold as daylight. I could tell they were Nazis by their swastika flags and their banner threatening violence – There Will Be Blood. I saw their sweatshirt logos as “Blond Tribe”, which I thought was a bizarrely witty self-awareness. No such luck. “BLOOD Tribe”. Really into blood. The SS-mimeoführer didn’t wear a mask. He was proud to show his bigoted face and own his hatred, unlike his SS-mann followers. Also unlike them, he wore a bright red blazer (presumably to hide the blood) and an open shirt that showed off a dicky-like tattoo up his neck. I have rarely seen someone look so arrogant, so asshole, so Nazi. (Most Nazis I have seen, including mimeoführer’s henchmen, are a little pathetic: bad posture, poorly groomed, faces hidden like an insecure dating site photo.) He looked more Nazi than Himmler. Or Hitler. His bearing, his shoulder-slam, the hate rhyme chants, the weapon, the masks, the Sieg Heils and the heil to my head, the epithets, the marching were intentional provocations and intimidations.

The Blood Tribe unintentionally made THE case for intersectionality. Their hate rhymes targeted the LGBTQ+ community. Their epithets were racist. And any time you carry a swastika, you’re anti-Semitic by definition. The single issue bigot on the next block in Flint didn’t know we were Jews. He just knew my cousin was Black. A few years later, Nazis came to New Paltz, New York. They understood intersectionality. New Paltz was a small village we had moved to. There was a used bookstore across the street I liked to hang out in. I was probably 11. The bookstore changed ownership. When my brother and I next went in, we discovered the new owners were Nazis. Intersectional hate posters unfavorably compared the skulls of apes, Jews, Negroes, and Asians to “Aryans”. Intersectional hate pamphlets were free. We took them home to show our parents. Then a cross was burned on the lawn of family friends. The friends were a Black veteran and his white wife, a concentration camp survivor. They had a biracial adopted son. We saw them often. Fascists conflate all of us they want to kill or enslave. They understand and embrace the intersectionality of their hatred.

This is why I and my friends and community went to Forsyth, GA, to confront the Klan. We take back the streets. This is why my daughter and I and our friends and community infiltrated the anti-choice picket line at E N Broadway with women’s rights signs until we outnumbered them. We take back the sidewalks. This is why we show up to protect drag shows and “vaccination required” venues (thank you, Natalie’s). Fascists understand intersectionality and how it threatens them. Fascists know that if we work together, they lose.

Republican Ohio Legislators understand intersectionality as well as Nazis and use it the same way. They work systematically to consolidate straight white male Christian power. Their repressive laws attack us all. Their August referendum is as blatant a power grab as the January 6th attempted coup. ¡No pasará! It shall not pass!!

Never cede the sidewalk to fascists.