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Alt-right protests against Googles allegedly anti-white-male diversity policies were already being planned before the white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville this last weekend. And organizers of the March on Google in (at last count) nine cities are trying to distinguish themselves from the motley gang of neo-Nazis, Kluxers, and open white supremacists who held the Unite the Right rally in Virginia. They issued a statement that closely tracks the evasive take on Charlottesville of you-know-who in the White House:

We, the organizers of the March on Google, join the President in condemning the actions in Charlottesville on August 12th. Despite many false rumors from those seeking to discredit us we are in no way associated with any group who organized there.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms any display of hatred and bigotry from any side. It has no place in America. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society.

But inevitably, given the timing, what looks and feels like a proliferation of far-right public events is going to attract attention, and probably counter-demonstrators. The march will be directed at Google facilities in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., in addition to the companys headquarters, GooglePlex, in Mountain View, California.

The protests, of course, were spurred by the now-infamous memo on Googles hiring practices that made its author, Google engineer James Damore, a conservative hero, particularly after he was fired over it. As Madison Malone Kircher notes, Damore chose to show some solidarity with the alt-right.

Since confirming his firing, Damore has done very little press, but his first public interview, posted online Tuesday evening, is with alt-right YouTuber Stefan Molyneux.

Damore doesnt express any beyond-the-pale views in the interview, but Molyneux a mens-rights blogger and accused cult leader with, uh, unorthodox views on race is, well, a pointed choice for a first-interview host.

The alt-right not those prone to cavorting in sheets or goose-stepping, but the kind of people who view Breitbart News as their daily bread and mobilized for Trumps presidential candidacy has reciprocated this embrace avidly. And that has led to next weekends march, as the San Jose Mercury News reports:

We are going to raise awareness about Googles one-sided bias and campaign against dissenting opinions and voices, activist and protest march organizer Jack Posobiec, a self-identified member of the new right that seeks to distance itself from the white-power politics of the alt-right, told this news organization via Twitter.

Googles firing of James Damore is the flashpoint here, said the pro-Trump Posobiec, known for peddling conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate.

Posobiec was also special projects director for Citizens for Trump, a leading outside pro-Trump group during the 2016 presidential campaign. One problem for him in distinguishing the March on Google from Unite the Right is that he was accused by his own former employer, The Rebel, earlier this year of plagiarizing a video script from Jason Kessler, the white supremacist who organized Unite the Right. Oops.

Its likely next weekends protests will mark a point either of convergence or divergence for the alt-right and white-supremacist groups.

As J.M. Berger observes at Vox, the events in Charlottesville represent an existential challenge to the idea of the alt-right as a playful and essentially harmless online phenomenon:

Charlottesville put to rest the idea that the alt-right can be primarily defined as fun-loving transgressive hipsters or an elaborate practical joke (if anyone still really believed that). Even before the culminating act of terrorism, the rally in Charlottesville illustrated that the umbrella of the alt-right is an effective means to mobilize a highly visible mix of old-school white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Offline, at least, this isnt the new white nationalism; its the old white nationalism as the primary beneficiary of the activity generated by a looser collection of people online.

How the March on Google turns out could have significant implications for the alt-right and for their daddy Donald Trump. Charlottesville was a turning point.

As he dragged his feet on condemning racist violence this weekend, the president was thinking fondly of the nativist demagogue Joe Arpaio.

The 23-year-old would-be terrorist told an FBI informant that he wanted to start the next revolution.

Alabama GOP voters likely to vault the wheezing campaign of Trumps endorsee Luther Strange into a runoff with the grim celebrity theocrat Roy Moore.

In the White House on Monday, Trump said racism is evil and called out white supremacists by name.

Alt-right activists who would like to distinguish themselves from the white supremacists who rioted in Charlottesville will march against Google.

Blending neo-Confederate and Nazi ideology, our white nationalist movement is part of a frightening international phenomenon.

More than words are needed to absolve the GOP and Donald Trump of collaborating with racists. But very direct words are essential as well.

A far stronger response than the president has mustered.

Kenneth Frazier, who runs Merck, said leaders must reject expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.

And helped its key player escape to the United States.

A former teacher said he expressed white-supremacist views throughout high school, and he was kicked out of the Army after four months.

We still dont know if Trump plans to sabotage Obamacare, which is whats driving up 2018 premiums.

Republicans need to do a lot more than say the right words about Nazis to atone for their role in the revival of the racist right.

Many sides are to blame for the haphazard defense of the presidents response to Charlottesville, but none more so than Trump himself.

The wounds are raw in the city.

It calls the media enemies of the president.

Thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer had a very strong sense of right and wrong and was dedicated to ending injustice, according to her mother.

By professing neutrality between those who support and oppose racial equality, Trump is joining the generations of pols who whitewashed Jim Crow.

Republicans are continuing to call out the president, this time over white-nationalist violence.

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Don't Look Now, But Alt-Right Demonstrations Are Scheduled for Nine Cities Next Weekend - New York Magazine