This photo from Wednesday Jan. 6, 2021 shows Trump supporters swarming the Capitol, as Congress prepares to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory. A little used Civil War-era statute that outlaws waging war against the United States is getting a fresh look after the attacks on the Capitol.
Controversy
Confrontation
Cooperation
As 2021 ventures into its second month, these seven C's from 2020 still wrap a pervasive dark cloud over the national mindset. The results have been an ongoing quagmire of conflicting national newscasts that continue to radically transform the American character. Decades earlier, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders issued its February 1968 “Kerner Report,” named after its chair, federal judge Otto Kerner Jr. After several months of investigation and eventual publication, this 426-page document articulated a main thesis that America was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.” Over two million Americans purchased this report. But more importantly, this analysis left little doubt that the 1960s riots were the result of white racism structured on a platform of lack of economic opportunity for Blacks, an eroding of social service programs, unchecked police brutality towards Blacks, and a white-oriented media that routinely presented Blacks as lawless criminals to be feared. Flash-forward to 2021.
In January, Georgia voters determined the makeup of the U.S. Senate and set the stage for the realpolitik agenda of a new presidential administration. That state sent its first African-American and first Jew to the Senate. And in doing so, that southern state made another proactive step toward a deeper repudiation of its violent racist, demagoguery and anti-semitic past as evidenced by the historical reign of terror manifested by Lester Maddox. And unbelievable as it may sound, in 2021, there are still white elected politicians who continue a comprehensive systemic effort to legislate voter suppression laws that will lessen the ability of Black Americans to vote. But more was to come.
Americans watched in stunned disbelief on Jan. 6, the day that Congress convened to certify presidential electoral ballots. Seditious, rabid supporters of the 45th U.S. president (who encouraged anarchy-driven lawlessness to forward his post-election presidential power grab) illegally breached federal property; stormed the steps of the U.S. Capital; climbed walls; forcibly entered that building; and made their unobstructed way through the rotunda onto the chamber where electoral votes were being certified. An armed standoff took place at the doors to the chamber. This was insurrection. A U.S. Capitol police officer was killed by rioters and other deaths have been attributed to this lawlessness.
Unbelievably, anarchy-driven mobs were able to move their illegal trajectory without immediate interference by U.S. Capitol or park police, and soon it was too late for D.C. metropolitan law enforcement and the National Guard to make a difference. Later, law enforcement officials admitted those violent seditious rogues should never have made it as far as they did. If Black Lives Matter protesters did the same, D.C. streets and Capitol grounds would have been paved with severely injured and corpses of Black and Brown bodies. And these Americans would have never made it into the building.
You may wonder how an abject breakdown in policing could happen, or you are unknowingly an overt apologist and supporter of white-fueled riots; regardless, consider a simple fact. There is a double standard of race-based policing. There was explicit acquiescence by some police officers who were either racially acclimated prior to or racialized after joining "the force.” These officers embraced racialized thinking, and their mindset embraced and supported white nationalistic criminal activity. Sadly, Jan. 6 was the embodiment of alt-right conspiracy lunacy that empowered adherents to wreak havoc with the ultimate purpose of creating a civil war. Far too many officers stood by. They stood down. Hopefully, you have seen the social media videos and photos documenting law enforcement officers and rioters smiling at each other, standing shoulder to shoulder. Some retired military forces disgraced their uniform by joining in this insurrection, driven by mass hatred.
It is important to realize that the Capitol police is a force of 2,300, but only 500 officers with no appropriate protective gear or arrest equipment were assigned to an event that was widely promoted on alt-right social media to motivate thousands of 45th president supporters to invade the District of Columbia. The expressed goal was to create unprovoked havoc; kill certain elected officials; disrupt a legal process of democracy. Insurrectionists entered several entrances to a federal building that were not necessarily known by the general public. Where were the undercover officers who habitually weave their way into progressive Black organizations? Why was there a paucity of police when it was clear beforehand that the expected hordes would be racist, violence-prone, extreme adherents to alt-right and white supremacist organizations? These groups posted rampant and detailed social media posts calling for planned violent uprisings throughout the country. And it is a fact that a sitting U.S. president stroked that pent-up fervor for violent insurrection. The public should expect law enforcement and governmental complicity at the highest levels to come to light as various investigations move forward.
Many would argue that Jan. 6 made clear the despicable systemic racial underpinnings inherent in policing. Unfortunately, this demented attitude is emboldened by the overall silence of a majority of the national citizenry who do not appear to want to change their support for the “blue” regardless of its racially divisive double standard. This ownership suggests force used against Black and Brown people is appropriate but never against folks who embrace the dismantling of American democracy to preserve white privilege and demagoguery. Too many white Americans still feel (behind closed doors) that the country belongs to them, exclusively. That is their truth. A truth difficult to accept, hear or internalize.
William Berry Jr., of Auburn, is a retired senior-level university administrator with over 33 years of service at various institutions. He currently serves as a consultant on issues centering on equity, inclusion, diversity and retention-oriented customer service while continuing his stance as an activist scholar commenting on a variety of social justice issues. He publishes aaduna, a global, online multicultural literary and visual arts journal, and is current chair of the Auburn-based Harriet Tubman Center for Justice and Peace board. He can be reached at htcjpauburn@gmail.com.
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Berry: Rethinking social justice in the age of conflict and rage (a four-part series) - Auburn Citizen
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