Yeah…the whole Capitol insurrection/coup attempt thing on January 6, 2021. What a start to the new year, huh? I really didn’t want to speak about it or even deal with it because who hasn’t been. It’s been basically the only thing people can really talk about right now, which means we’re going to have to peruse the news between Jan. 6 to now just to see what other insane nonsense we’ve missed in between. I’m not going to go through a long history of how we got to this point or say something ridiculous like “this is not who we are” despite all evidence to the contrary, I’m just going to talk about a few things that annoy me about this whole thing and politics surrounding it in general. Also I apologize in advance, this is unorganized and from brain to page, so I didn’t exactly sort my thoughts into categorizes…bare with me please.
What everyone saw on the 6th was exactly what America has always been for Black and Brown people in that country. This wasn’t just from the 4 years of Trump, it was the festering hatred of 8 years of a Black president; it was the attempt at a woman as President after; it was the coddling and excuses for an adult male after. Unfortunately part of this is the entire Republican party doing nothing to stop Trump or even remove him based on moral and ethical reasons, but aligning themselves with his abhorrent rhetoric in the hopes that they could create a fascist government where they controlled everything. They were quiet after the attempt. REAL abnormally quiet. Almost as if they were hoping their opponents would be wiped out or left cowering due to a dangerous attempt of bloodlust by “red hats”. This is not “a small number of people”, these were just the ones who could make it. This is white supremacy (which will be replaced by ‘white fragility’ henceforth) at its most transparent. Police officers who were off duty joining the insurrection, some taking photos and giving people access to certain areas; it was a very different feeling altogether say from the Occupy Wall st movement or any of the Black Lives Matter protests from last year, or Ferguson in 2014. Where were the tanks? Where were the police in riot gear tear-gassing and shooting rubber bullets to “disperse the crowd”? Did they run out from all those protests that were in the streets? Did they simply forget they could use them? Or did they know that this group was actually willing to fire back? Were they not threatened for their lives? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for police violence or even trying to accept these forms of punishment as needed by the police, I’m simply wondering why was marching in the streets and giving speeches and holding signs aggressively met with wanton violence from police, yet an ACTUAL terrorist plot was a hangout at a barbecue?
This was bound to happen, everyone always expected it from us (Black people) first. That’s why the responses to any agitation Black people have is so swift, as if they are aware of the treatment of Black people in the country and want to strike it out as early as possible. Black first, American second is kind of how everyone looks at it unless you’re one of those delusional people who believe that your skin color doesn’t matter because “everyone is terrible”, which is lazy and a refusal to acknowledge the lived experiences of others. Not to say that the Dems aren’t in any way enforcers of white fragility, currently having a President-elect who believes he can “bring both sides together” because he has done so in the past is almost like saying “I speak white man, they’ll get it”. But what about VP-elect Kamala Harris, surely they didn’t pick another mixed race brown skin person (woman specifically) because of sexism/racism? *shrug* No idea, but I do know having Kamala Harris makes Joe Biden look better… and wasn’t that always the main goal of this election? To beat Trump, nevermind Bidens policies and stances, which by all means should be pushing for more progressive change because pushing for progressive change means not coddling white fragility. Education eradicates… I can’t think of a softer word for stupidity, but you get what I’m saying right? There is a conspiracy that education is “liberal” because people aren’t being angry hate machines like their parents–they’re learning to respect individuality in others, they’re learning history as it happened and not as national propaganda, they’re experiencing a clash of cultures and with any luck, seasoning.
Education is a big blot in the States simply because some who become older just don’t want to change because existing is exhausting. The way things were is how people are still being led, not by how the way things are. There needs to be more representation in the U.S. Senate, personally I’d prefer a majority of Indigenous peoples representation because it is beyond overdue. For me there is an absolute truth for the United States and that is that the country is built on lies or rather it buried the bones of the truth and has been haunted by them ever since. It HAS TO acknowledge it’s history, provide actual education regardless of how it makes the country look, and push toward rectifying its mistakes. It’s a true battle between positive/Good virtue and greed, and the Pale Man doesn’t like to share.
Something With Nothing 