A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump collect on the West aspect of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. | Supply: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Getty
UPDATED: 10:00 a.m. ET, Jan. 6, 2025
4 years after the violent riot on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a evident double commonplace alongside racial traces stays unimaginable to disregard for anybody taking note of all the hateful parts that helped gasoline these riots and outline that second’s legacy by persevering with to disclose themselves.
The aim of the so-called “Cease the Steal” rally was to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden‘s presidential election primarily based on “the large lie” that nonexistent voter fraud performed a task in his victory over Donald Trump, a suspected white supremacist whose rhetoric is broadly credited for serving to to incite the rioters. However when you peel again just a few layers of that racist onion, you would possibly recall how Trump falsely blamed states with vital Black voting populations that offered the deciding Electoral Faculty votes to safe Biden’s win.
Supply: ROBERTO SCHMIDT / Getty
Georgia, as an example, is essentially credited with pushing Biden previous the end line — thanks in no small half to the devoted legion of Black organizers who mobilized voters throughout the state to forged their ballots towards Trump, who additionally blamed Black election staff underneath false pretenses. This was the idea of energizing Trump’s base to behave on his behalf to avenge his loss in probably the most disingenuous of how: by blindly parroting the declare that he was cheated out of being re-elected with the assistance of Black people.
With that seed planted, it was no surprise the Capitol riots unfolded the way in which they did — with white privilege on the forefront.
Trump and his workforce of MAGA lovers proceed to terrorize a pair of former Georgia election staff, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — who’re Black and had been on the receiving finish of a whopping $148 million judgment towards former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a racist defamation marketing campaign. Freeman and Moss in the end testified earlier than the Jan. 6 committee, detailing the devastating ranges of harassment they skilled for defending democracy. They’re nonetheless awaiting Guiliani to show over his property.
Police reactions and responses
Let’s take the reactions from officers with the Capitol Police, as an example. Black Capitol cops have recounted their therapy by rioters, together with being known as the N-word. White Capitol cops, nevertheless, may very well be seen really helping Capitol rioters, with one even stopping to take a selfie with somebody who clearly had illegally damaged into the hallowed constructing on the federal authorities property.
Capitol Police Pfc. Harry Dunn, who’s Black, testified earlier than Congress that rioters showered him with anti-Black racism as he tried in useless to regulate the rabid crowd.
“You hear that, guys, this [N-word] voted for Joe Biden!” Dunn mentioned a lady sporting a MAGA shirt yelled at him in the course of the riots. He mentioned that prompted a collective response from different rioters: “Boo! F–king [N-word]!”
He mentioned he had by no means been known as the N-word to his face till Jan. 6.
Dunn additionally testified that different Black officers advised him they skilled comparable therapy, together with one who mentioned he was threatened with racist violence: “Put your gun down, and we’ll present you what sort of [N-word] you actually are!”
The privilege of white supremacy
Philadelphia columnist Solomon Jones puzzled the apparent on the time: “Would these insurrectionists have been allowed to breach the Capitol in the event that they had been Black?” He answered his personal query within the resounding destructive as a result of, “Black individuals and white persons are handled in another way by the police, and that’s why it was really easy for an overwhelmingly white mob to assault the Capitol.”
Not solely did they break into and assault the Capitol, however many perpetrators additionally unabashedly looted objects from contained in the constructing, together with private results belonging to members of Congress, like a laptop computer that was stolen from Home Chief Nancy Pelosi’s workplace.
Supply: Win McNamee / Getty
Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow of governance research on the Brookings Institute, drew a transparent distinction between police responses to nonviolent Black Lives Matter motion protests and the uber-violent Capitol riots that additionally solutions Jones’ rhetorical query above.
“Solely about 60 rioters had been arrested on January 6, 2021, whereas almost the identical variety of cops had been injured (together with one officer who was killed together with one of many insurgents),” Ray wrote. “For comparability, on June 1, 2020 in Washington DC, almost 6,000 regulation enforcement officers starting from ICE to DEA together with Nationwide Guard helicopters had been mobilized to descend on the world for a Black Lives Matter protest. Over 300 individuals had been arrested that evening. They by no means even obtained near the Capitol or the White Home.”
Anti-Black hate teams had been concerned within the Capitol riots
Anytime the Proud Boys take part in something, likelihood is there shall be an anti-Black theme connected. Members of the so-called Oath Keepers — a bunch acknowledged by the Southern Poverty Legislation Middle as far-right antigovernment extremists who described Black Lives Matter as “racist” — took half within the Capitol riots, as nicely.
Jan. 6 was a mannequin of white privilege — it’s taken months for suspects to be charged and convicted, a luxurious that seemingly wouldn’t have been afforded had the rioters been principally Black as an alternative of principally white as individuals would have been arrested on the spot, in all probability with the brutal violence we see regulation enforcement wielding towards Black suspects each single day.
Notably, Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio was sentenced in September to 22 years in jail for his position within the riots that he was;t even in a position to attend since he was arrested the day earlier than it occurred.
Supply: Jon Cherry / Getty
Jan. 6 is defended by racist elected officers
Whereas it has been confirmed that a variety of Republican elected officers performed a key position in inciting the Capitol riots, individuals like right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Inexperienced have remained defending accused rioters in a racist context. In any case, it was additionally Taylor Inexperienced who mentioned they had been being accused as a result of they had been white.
She claimed that “alleged” members within the Capitol riots who’ve been jailed after being accused of among the most critical crimes of the occasion are being discriminated towards.
“They had been remoted in a separate wing of the jail, the place they’re abused, the place they’re ridiculed, the place they’re mocked due to their political views and due to January 6, and due to the colour of their pores and skin,” she mentioned in December 2021. “So there’s a two-tiered justice system, and these are the issues that want to finish.”
As of three years later, not a single one of many elected officers — none of whom are Black — alleged to be behind the Capitol riots have been held accountable for his or her [alleged] roles.
That is America.
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