R&K Insider: The white nationalist party that wasn’t
This week on Roads & Kingdoms, Americans show up to protest racism, writer David Woods meets Egyptian rally racers in the desert, and photographer Kristen Dobbin has her eyes on Costa Rica.
Happy Friday! It’s your photo editor, Cengiz, here again.
Last weekend I escaped New York and hit the road for a humid few days through Charlottesville and Washington, DC. It was the first anniversary of Charlottesville’s violent Unite the Right rally, so I went to see what the turnout would be like this time around. The response and reaction were about as far from last year’s events as one could imagine. In both cities, people turned out in droves to denounce racism and tell the world neo-Nazis and white nationalists have no place in American society.
Barely 20 white-nationalist demonstrators showed up to the scheduled rally in Washington on Sunday, and they were met by thousands of counter-protesters. They relied on police protection to safely walk a mile from Foggy Bottom metro station to Lafayette Park and shouted at the crowd, but their voices were drowned out by a cacophony of chanting, jeers, and boos from the counter-protesters. There were minor clashes. Someone got punched, the cops maced someone else, and I saw a couple of flags being burned, but ultimately, the weekend was peaceful, and the overwhelming number of counter-protesters sent a firm message: racists were not welcome.
Also this week on R&K, David Wood explores a community of drivers who use Egypt’s deserts as a racetrack. As if rally racing weren’t dangerous enough, they face security threats and have to navigate government instability in pursuit of their passion.
In Costa Rica, photographer Kristen Dobbin follows a young, aspiring wildlife guide amid the enchanting mountains of the Osa Peninsula.
On our sister site Explore Parts Unknown, we rolled out Bourdain’s Tokyo episode from the second season. Check out our guide to a perfect day in the city and read cofounder Matt Goulding’s list of what to know before you go. We pulled Bourdain’s best quotes from the episode too, as he ate with a professional bondage artist and sat down with the creator of tentacle porn.
Over on R&K Instagram, photographer Felipe Luna is sharing his work documenting the communities affected by the invasive paiche river fish in the Bolivian Amazon. You can see the original piece Luna published with R&K associate editor Michael Snyder here.
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I’m at cengiz@roadsandkingdoms.com.
– Cengiz