‘America is a deeply divided nation’

Despite US politicians’ and MSM claims America is a united country it’s still profoundly divided, where different racial communities don’t have the same values and the Gray shooting scandal proved it, said Richard Spencer of AlternativeRight.com.

RT:What do you think about the coverage by the mainstream media like CNN and Fox regarding the Baltimore riots?

Richard Spencer: Of course there is a diversity of coverage but if we’re going to speak in generalities, the scandals like this that reveal something important about the American nation. It is a profoundly divided nation. Perhaps your international viewers won’t recognize that because their representations of America are politicians or the mainstream media... And they like to talk about how America is united, we are one people, we have the same values, and so, and so forth. But we really don’t.

... America is a deeply divided nation. Its divisions have a number of different fault lines. One of the most important of those is race... Different racial communities don’t have the same values. In these scandals like the Freddy Gray shooting we get to see the real face of America’s divisions. And we’re seeing that now. You can see it in just title things like that exchange on CNN where the “N” word was used. And you can see these contentious debates that are occurring in the mainstream media.

RT:State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said that the coverage was very transparent. Would you agree or not?

RS: No, I don’t... That is very funny coming from the State Department. No, it is never transparent. The coverage of all these kind of things is always politicized. It is interesting when you think about the framing of these issues...

When there were major violent riots [with] the use of Molotov cocktails, murder, violent attacks on the police - I’m referring to the Maidan revolution of 2013-2014 in Ukraine, in Kiev - those were described by the mass media and State Department as “peaceful” and just attempts to bring “democracy” to a country, and so on, and so forth. They obviously weren’t - that was a coup and those protests were very violent, much more violent than what we’re seeing in Baltimore. Yet, now in Baltimore when the stability of the US is threatened, when some of these divisions sort of get out of hand, then we decide: “Oh, we’re going to have a curfew, we are going to bring in the national guard, we’re going to militarize the police, we’re going to shut this down, we’re going to call people 'thugs' and not 'peaceful protestors'”.

RT:People were protesting last week for six days straight peacefully and there were practically no cameras at the scene. Why does it take violent riots for media to pay attention to protests?

RS: Once things start to get out of hand, they become more interesting and the media becomes excited about it. I would differ a little bit this notion that the media likes to ignore these things. I think the media wants to keep this ongoing tension within the American public going forever. We’ll always be having discussions about race and racism and injustice and inequality. We’re always going to be focused on a new scandal. There is new one about every three weeks or so. I don’t think the mainstream media was ignoring it by any stretch, they have been obsessed with this kind of scandal, and they ignored bigger issues. What it is - it’s starting to get out of hand, it is starting to get threatening, and it is starting to become interesting and that is why they are focusing on it.

RT:Do you think the situation with the mainstream media's coverage will make people stage more violent protests? Could you imagine Ukrainian revolution scenario in the US in the foreseeable future?

RS: That might be the case, although remember America is a fairly stable nation. I don’t see anything like what happened in Ukraine occurring in the US in the foreseeable future. I don’t think people are going to ultimately gain much by violence. I don’t think we’re in a revolutionary scenario, I don’t think we’re in a collapse or chaotic scenario... We are going to have what we have now - just effectively peaceful protest and some rioting and looting by thugs on the side.

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