YOU WILL NOT REPLACE US & WE LOVE YOU

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kelsey Webb has always been fascinated with creative modes of storytelling, through which she learned most of life’s lessons. It wasn’t until moving to New York City in 2014 that she realized her knowledge of historical race issues in this country was minimal. In August she drove alone from California to New York hoping to gain a better understanding of America as a united force. She found the country’s natural landscapes to be stunning but also noticed the further she traveled inland, the harder it was to find racial diversity. Native American tribes had their own government-appointed areas in Arizona and New Mexico. People of color were visually nonexistent in rural Illinois where she observed “No hoods allowed” signs at grocery stores. On the evening of August 11th, hundreds of young white nationalists came together at the University of Virginia, wielding torches while chanting “white lives matter,” “you will not replace us,” and the Nazi-associated phrase “blood and soil.” The next morning in Charlottesville, a white nationalist ran over and killed an innocent protester, Heather Heyer. You Will Not Replace Us and We Love You combines audio from NBC news reports, imagery of expansive American highways, and minimalist motion graphics. This piece was created with hopes of putting viewers in the shoes of the white nationalists, Heather Heyer, and everybody present in Charlottesville on August 11th and 12th in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of what a fragmented America is capable of.