Democracy & Violence in Charlottesville: Deliberation, Feminist Ethics, and Embodied Confrontation Against White Supremacy

This essay explores the implications of far-Right violence for democratic theory and feminist ethics by analyzing deliberative forums and violent confrontations over Charlottesville's Confederate monuments. The forums exemplified deliberation's best participatory qualities, but failed to prevent white supremacist violence at Unite the Right. I develop the concept of Embodied Confrontation—or assembling in public space to contest attempted construction of a neo-fascist people—to theorize one radically democratic practice that remains available when far-Right violence interrupts democratic processes. Complicating feminist theories of nonviolence, I critique binary violence/nonviolence distinctions and create space for self/community defense.