Thanks for a thoughtful article, Lauren. There is another incredible link between the 2016 protests at your alma mater, UCT, and the events in Charlottesville last weekend: both were seeded by highly charged disputes over contentious statues: Cecil John Rhodes and General Robert E Lee respectively. I believe that there is growing evidence that the pattern followed at UCT is being imitated in the USA. The Rhodes statue was removed.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss this. I will be in Charlottesville next Tuesday afternoon.