Update, August 16, 2017: Uno Pizzeria & Grill has confirmed it fired Ryan Roy.
A Vermonter was among the neo-Nazis and other “Unite the Right” types who shook up Charlottesville, Va., in a march-turned-mêlée last weekend. Today’s white supremacists don’t wear hoods, apparently, so as soon as the tiki-torch-wielding images went viral, internet vigilantes around the country started naming and shaming them.
Locals first recognized 28-year-old Ryan Roy in a Vice News video clip. Wearing a backpack and holding a torch, Roy is seen briefly chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!”
On Tuesday Seven Days tracked down Burlington resident Roy, who said the rally “showed that we’re a legitimate movement, that this is a movement of people. It’s not like a fringe thing.”
In a 25-minute interview, Roy admitted to attending the weekend’s events and spoke unabashedly about his “white identitarian” views.
“I feel like white people are discriminated against in this country,” Roy said. “You see a lot of stuff in the media and in popular culture portrayed by the left in this country that is, frankly, anti-white. But that’s not white supremacy. We just want to stand up for our own culture and heritage.”
He continued: “If you look up the definitions of ‘black pride’ or ‘Puerto Rican pride’ or ‘Asian pride,’ those will be considered pride in whatever race that is. But if you look up ‘white pride’ online, it’s white supremacy. It has negative connotations.”
Roy, who grew up in Essex, said his views evolved over time. He used to be a “leftist” before he realized “it didn’t make sense, it was bullshit” and adopted more “libertarian-type views.”
“I became more conservative as I became more informed, read more — and that’s where I am now,” Roy said. “I’m a person who’s interested in reading, who’s interested in learning so I’m always refining my opinions and ideas as I learn new information.”
Those who knew him as a teenager said he was “angry,” but far from a full-throated white nationalist.
“Back then he was just a goth-punk kid, and it never would have occurred to me — it seemed counterintuitive to the crowd we ran with, and especially our close friends,” said Kae Burdo.
Seeing Roy in the video “makes my skin crawl,” Burdo said.
“We forget that Vermont isn’t immune from this, I think. It’s a moment of the bubble bursting for a lot of folk,” she said.
Roy’s employer, Uno Pizzeria & Grill in South Burlington, learned of his activities from phone and Facebook messages.
“Are you aware that you employed an actual nazi?” one person wrote on the company’s Facebook page.
Roy originally was suspended, according to Skip Weldon, Uno’s chief marketing officer. He said the company learned on Tuesday morning that Roy had participated in the Charlottesville rally. The company later announced it had fired Roy.
Roy declined to comment on his employment situation. He did tell Seven Days he sings in a band called “Hate Speech,” which he described as a “power electronics against Communism” group.
He’s also a supporter of President Donald Trump.
“He came out and said things like it is,” Roy said. “He addressed the main issue in this country, which I think is immigration. And that we need to do something about illegal immigration, and frankly, legal immigration.”
Roy said attending the rally “reinforced the feeling” that the white nationalist movement is legitimate and he defended his decision to exercise his First Amendment rights. Are there more rallies in his future? “Probably,” he said.
“My views are right. I don’t feel like I need to hide it,” he said. “I’m not oppressing anyone. I’m not hurting anyone. I’m not breaking any laws. I feel the way I feel.”
Does he feel out of step in left-leaning Burlington?
“It’s a very nice city, and there’s not a lot of crime because it’s a very white city,” Roy said. “And because Vermont is a very white state, you don’t have all these problems you have in other parts of the country.”
What Roy doesn’t like, he told Seven Days, are the refugees in the area.
“They take jobs, they are given resources from our tax dollars,” he said. “You hear about how there’s a housing shortage in Chittenden County, but they’re putting up these people who aren’t from this country. They bring them over and they don’t even speak our language.”
Roy said he’d heard from some friends that he’d been outed. He was concerned because “radical leftists” posted threats against him and his family online.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t participate in any violence,” he said. “Just exercising my First Amendment rights.”
At the end of the conversation, Roy asked me about my political views. Then, he asked me about my last name: Goldstein.
“You are Jewish, right? Are you ethnically Jewish?” he asked.
I asked him how that was relevant to our interaction.
“It just means that I’m concerned that you’re going to lie about me,” Roy said.
“Why would you say I would lie about you?” I asked him.
“Because,” he replied, “that tends to be what your ethnic group does.”
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Steveo your world view points are offensive to me I’ll be sure to find out where you work and be sure to let your employer know so you can be suspended soon. If you are a boss or management I’ll be sure to start a boycott of the company. See the slippery slope your thought process has created. Thanks for doing your part in destroying the economy and forcing another family into the welfare system. Now that the Democrat way.
In times like this, I am inspired by a woman who, at a 1996 KKK rally in Michigan, protected a fallen white nationalist despite his clear opposition to her views.
She recognized one truth that binds us all: That we are all human beings and need to be seen that way.
Google “Keshia Thomas”. The photo is etched into my memory for a lifetime.
The enduring question should not be the dilemma of how to maintain the properly American social tolerance for blithely racist, fascist hate-mongering. They have plenty of room for their gut-churning poison (too much looks like).
The big-scope, enduring question we need to address is our crisis of vision. How, in a nation overwhelmed by surging fascism and intolerance, can we compel a large enough portion of these unseemly individuals to renounce their hatred once and for all… before the monster consumes this beautiful land we love?
Here’s the thing about Freedom of Speech, Citizen. It gives you the right to say whatever you want without fear of persecution from the government. It does not give you the ability to say whatever you want without fear of being shunned by the rest of society, or fired by your private sector employer. Employment and acceptance by the rest of society are not fundamental rights, being a giant bag of feces is a good way to assure that society rightfully rejects you even if the government allows you to be a giant bag of feces.
The government gives this anus the right to express himself in whatever way he chooses. As a society, we have an obligation to reject this sort of behavior.
Dear Citizen: There’s a place you can go to study history that doesn’t cost a dime. It’s the library.
@written..So all statues in Vermont should be taken down too,,????
Ethan Allen
Seth Warner
Gen John Stark
Molly Stark
St.Anne
The Whispering Statue
Civil War Statue
just to name a few and there’s lot’s of them, statues, monuments and markers in Vermont. Should these be put in museums, because they may “offend” someone or remind them there was a war? I for one like being able to stop and see these monuments/statues/markers. in our country..In Rapid City in South Dakota there is a statue of every President up to George W Bush..should these be taken down too??? Statues and Monuments are a way to preserve our Country’s History.it‘s a way for each state to honor these people..They are not to be erase..You people need to wake the he** up..North, South East and West all have a history..We have no right to try to hide/erase this history just because fools are offended..you don’t like it, then tough!!!!
What a wide array of views and opinions but to criticize someone for the shape of his ears or saying he needs cosmetic surgery simply because you do not like his beliefs, ironically, shows one’s own biases. I believe education and early intervention are the keys to fight against any discrimination as we are not born hating one another, but are taught it. Do I agree with Mr. Roy’s actions and comments? No, but our Amendments do call for free speech. It’s when this freedom is abused and turns into violence and murder, that it turns into something ugly and fearful and does not belong in any society…
Written no one should have to pay to have the opportunity to study history so unless the Smithsonian is going to put all these monument into it so it will be free of charge a public space such as a park are the only spots for them. When you and your friends are done with the confederate monuments what will you take down next the Washington Monument should we also blow Washington’s face off MT Rushmore. After all he was a southern slave owner. When do we as a people put history behind us learn from its successes and it’s mistakes and move forward towards a positive future. Im sure running people out of their jobs because you dont agree with them is not the way to that future.
The First Amendment states that the federal government cannot abridge your right to the exercise of free speech, and the Fourteenth Amendment applies that to the state governments. No one has a constitutional right to free speech with regard to their employer, though in some states there are statutes of varying content that offer some limited protections (Vermont is not one of them). Anyone who expresses extreme views, especially hateful views directed at minority groups, and who works in a business serving the public will, of necessity, be fired. Even in states with some protections the employer will find some other way. It’s just that simple. Making into something bigger is meaningless sophistry. This young man is the embodiment of ignorance and foolishness, if for no other reason (and there are actually many other reasons, as his own words attest) than that he does not understand this simple fact.
Donna Boutin. Sure. Nazis are people. They’re just not nice people. And, tearing down monuments of racists and slave owners isn’t erasing Southern history. There’s LOTS of Southern history that has nothing to do with people who thought of blacks as inferior to white folks.
As far as the monuments go, they belong in museums, not on public squares and thoroughfares.