Kiran Klubock-Shukla
- Interviewer
- Selena Piercy
- Date
- November 11, 2023
- Location of the Interview
- Sewanee, TN
- Length
- 24 minutes, 58 seconds
- Abstract
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Kiran Klubock-Shukla was born in New York City, New York, raised in Charlottesville, Virginia and is currently a junior at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The interview begins with Klubock-Shukla talking about his community at his local synagogue as a camp counselor and teacher to young children. He currently is involved in the music community as a violinist. He also discusses the differences between where he was raised and where he currently resides, as Providence is a much more racially diverse area than Charlottesville.
In July and August of 2017, members of the alt-right movement and Ku Klux Klan marched in Charlottesville as a counter-protest to the Black Lives Matter movement, despite the majority of residents not participating in these alt-right riots. He believes the alt-right community chose to hold the rally in Charlottesville because the city was one of the first to begin the process of removing statues that honored leaders of the Confederacy. Because of these two events in 2017, residents of Charlottesville further emphasized their unwavering support for the Black Live Matter movement when it gained a lot more traction in the United States in 2020 through protests and displaying lawn signs. Klubock-Shukla believes the movement succeeded in raising awareness of the racial segregation still occurring in Charlottesville neighborhoods and allowed people of color a space to voice their grievances. On the other hand, he believes that the movement failed because the organization for Black Lives Matter did not reflect the goals of the general supporters of the movement. Kiran has noticed that some things have changed since 2020, like officers who murdered Black people are being held accountable for their actions, but he also expressed concerns about the rise of anti-semitism because of people conflating that with anti-Black racism. He hopes to see a future of anti-racism on all fronts.
Part of Kiran Klubock-Shukla