The small town of Charlottesville, Virginia, is making international headlines after a right-wing multi-group protest scheduled for August 11th turned shockingly violent. A Fargo, North Dakota man named Pearce Tefft has bravely stepped forward to denounce and disown his son, who identifies as a white nationalist and marched at the fateful Unite the Right rally. "Peter Tefft, my son, is not welcome at our family gatherings any longer," he writes in a powerful open letter published on August 14th.
The Tefft family announcement comes just 6 months after Peter was labelled by locals in his hometown as a 'Nazi,' following the discovery of disturbing Nazi Germany-related content he had shared on social media. Though Tefft has refused the title and prefers to be known as a "pro-White activist," his father admits in his letter that Peter has made jokes about throwing non-Fascists "into an oven." Pearce Tefft, a liberal Democrat, maintains that his wayward son did not learn this discriminatory behaviour at home, and that the entire family rejects his actions and beliefs.
The Charlottesville protests, which Peter traveled from North Dakota to attend, escalated into chaos after a man associated with the neo-Nazi movement rammed into a crowd of pedestrians with his car, killing a 32-year-old woman named Heather Heyer. The rallies were triggered by plans to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces in Charlottesville, and have spurred new conversations about interracial conflict in the USA.
Read Pearce Tefft's poignant letter below, and tell us what you think at the end.
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A "pro-White activist" from Fargo, ND, named Peter Tefft traveled to Charlottesville, VA last week to participate in the Unite the Right rally
The protests, triggered by plans to remove Confederate monuments from Charlottesville, later turned violent and claimed a 32-year-old woman's life
Now, that same man's father, Pearce Tefft, is stepping forward with a public letter addressed to his son, who has been labelled a 'Nazi' by his hometown peers
Silence was not an option for this dad, who identifies as a liberal Democrat and maintains that he has raised his family as such
After endless reports of chaos in Charlottesville, this was exactly what the world needed to hear
