I've spent my life here in Canada in relative average Canadian boringness. My parents are refugees from Somalia, and I grew up in a middle-class household. My dad worked for the federal government for over 20 years. While I've experienced my fair share of Islamophobia and racism, overall I've been surrounded by open-minded people throughout my academic career and work life. The rise of Trump and white supremacy has largely not touched me in my daily interactions—I've viewed it primarily through the lens of the internet. Other than videos of Trump rallies and Richard Spencer speeches, and racists in my Twitter mentions, I haven't directly confronted the extreme right-wing movement that hates my existence. (Though, as I soon learned, these people do not believe they hate Muslims: They just hate Islam, they insist, and they are fighting for their right to hate.)I've always fantasized about what it would be like to go to a right-wing rally or gathering, in the same way I've fantasized about what it would be like to see a dangerous animal in the wild up close. Yes, I've seen enough National Geographic documentaries to know a bear could rip me to shreds in no time, but could a white supremacist do the same? After learning about the event on Twitter, I decided to go purely for the sake of curiosity (and hopefully a great story).Read the rest of this story here on BROADLY
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