“Let’s be clear, this was a domestic terrorist attack perpetrated by riotist gangs of white supremacists, armed equipped and many skilled in police and military tactics who came to reverse an election in which their candidate Trump lost,” Rep. . Joyce Beatty of Ohio and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus said at the group’s hearing.
Mrs. Speaker, St. Louis and I support the article of impeachment against Donald J. Trump. If we fail to remove a white supremacist president who instigated a white supremacist uprising, it’s communities like Missouri’s First District. who suffer the most. ” Bush said during her speech.
People marched in by the thousands after believing that something wrong had been done to them. The call for racial justice across America during the summer was bolstered by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the pain of next generations of anti-Blackness sentiment. Unlike BLM protests, the Capitol uprising was fueled by lies and deep-seated racist stereotypes, experts say.
Convinced that the presidential election had been stolen, rioters referred to themselves as “patriots” and repeatedly chanted “US, US” as they demolished and destroyed the building at the heart of American democracy. Trump, who has embraced dog whistle tactics such as Mexicans call ‘rapists’ and called the words Black Lives Matter a ‘symbol of hate’, urged them.
“Once something like that feels true, the facts can’t hold them back,” said Ian Haney López, the author of “Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class.”
Here’s a look at what drove the Black Lives Matter movement for nearly a decade and why Trump supporters pushed into the Capitol:
False and debunked claims drew thousands to the Capitol
After weeks of hearing false claims that the presidential election had been faked, Trump supporters flocked to Washington to fight the ceremonial count of the election votes that would confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Hours before the uprising, Trump addressed a crowd of supporters who gathered at the Ellipse near the White House, fueling false allegations of voter fraud and telling them to “fight like hell.”
“I am absolutely 100% behind what happened here today,” Todd Possett, who was part of last week’s mafia, told CNN’s Donie Sullivan. ‘It is terrible how these elections have been stolen. I had to come here to do my patriotic duty. ‘
Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said on Wednesday that the crowd was motivated by racial resentment and “a conspiracy theory rooted in the attempt to invalidate black people.”
“The crowd was met with empathy and reverence from some in law enforcement and some in a military establishment that houses white supremacists, say, among its own ranks,” Morial testified at the Congressional Black Caucus hearing in response to the riots.
After the election, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Camden, New Jersey, were among the cities the Trump campaign had falsely accused of voter fraud and corruption. These cities are predominantly black or have a large black population.
At a press conference in November, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said, “You knew if you lived in Philadelphia. Unless you’re stunned – that’s an Italian expression for stupid – unless you’re stupid, you knew a lot of people came out. Camden about to vote, ”he said. “They do that every year. Happening all the time in Philadelphia. … And it may happen because it’s a Democrat (sic), corrupt city, and has been for years. Many, many years. And they’ve got it in places. where they could get rid of it. “
Rioters believed a story deeply rooted in racist stereotypes that was consistent across the Trump administration and used by other politicians for the past 50 years, according to Haney López, who is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
“What they are mainly trying to create is the feeling that dangerous persons of color are coming to take over the country,” said Haney López.
“They believe it because it feels true in their hearts that this multiracial coalition is seizing power,” he added. “It’s just wrong for them that black people in a coalition with Latinos and Asian Americans and whites take power.”
Political leaders have long used dog whistles to exploit White America’s racial fears. Some of those terms include “illegal alien,” “thug,” and “Welfare Queen,” which were used by President Ronald Reagan when he ran for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination to attack welfare chisels during campaign speeches.
In his first public comments to reporters since the uprising, Trump stressed that his speech instigating the riot was “completely justified”.
He claimed the “real problem” is what other politicians said about the summer protests in Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
The uprising at the Capitol was also a stunning display of power for the fringe movements with various symbols of white supremacy and extremist groups.
A worldwide rallying cry for black lives
In 2013, the unexpected murder verdict in the murder of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black teenager who had walked around his father’s Florida neighborhood, led to the birth of Black Lives Matter – one of the best known fighting organizations. for the good of black people.
What started as a hashtag became a website, an organization, and later grew into more than a dozen local chapters in the US and Canada. They were driven by the series of deaths of black Americans at the hands of police and vigilantes.
According to the BLM website, its mission is “to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in the violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes.”
But BLM’s goal isn’t just to protest police brutality. At the local level, the organization advocates mutual aid, defunding the police, and access to housing and health care for black and brown workers.
“We live in a country built to keep us away from the resources we need,” said Kailee Scales, director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. “People in the movement have consistently fought to reverse that trend, to raise awareness that this is not the way we should be living.”
Studies show that segregation continues in many American cities, leaving most black neighborhoods behind. Black communities do not have the same access as whites to health care, quality education, good jobs and other resources.
“You know, for many of us in this country, we know what it’s like to be treated differently. our fault (s) for somehow creating the conditions for inequality, ”said Alicia Garza, who co-founded the Black Lives Matter Global Network with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.
In the aftermath of Floyd’s murder last summer, large crowds took to the streets in multiple cities in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. The protests were bigger and more lasting. The BLM signs that cropped up among many people were just the first signs of a nationwide racial reckoning.
People marched against police brutality, systemic racism, to be seen and heard.
“If you don’t say anything and don’t say anything, you’re just like the agents who stood by and watched,” Randy Fikki, a protestor in Kansas City, told CNN subsidiary WDAF-TV, referring to the agents involved. in the death of Floyd.
Critics have responded to the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ by coming up with their own slogans, such as ‘All Lives Matter’, which some argue minimizes black people’s current struggle against systemic racism, and ‘Blue Lives Matter’, referring to the lives of the police.
Last week, Trump supporters faced criticism on social media after using another phrase that has been known for years as a call for racial justice.
They used the hashtag #SayHerName when referring to Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old white woman who was fatally shot as the crowd tried to make their way to the House floor.
They did not seem to be aware of the #SayHerName campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the black women and girls who are victims of police brutality – and who are often overlooked and forgotten.
Launched in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, the campaign has worked to highlight the cases of dozens of black women, including Atatiana Jefferson and Michelle Cusseaux, both killed by police in their houses.
