The Capitol Siege: Historic racism was at its roots!
By Cash Michaels
Since last week’s horrifying and violent breach of the U.S. Capitol by thousands of White, fever-pitched pro-Trump supporters, much of what we have heard - though compelling - has missed the point: the bottom line to the attack on our nation’s Capitol building by White supremacists, is race.
This guttural social temper-tantrum has happened in our nation’s history before, and from what we are hearing, is likely to happen again in the near future.
Why? History tells us it is all about White belief in coveting control for the sake of maintaining racial power, and the fear of losing it.
That is the common theme that runs through every historical instance of White American violent and political insurrection.
Naturally, thanks to a jaundiced misinterpretation of the Bible, Whites of earlier centuries thought of themselves as God-made superior beings, placed here to rule the Earth, and consequently, non-whites who lacked the power to successfully resist domination.
That credo led to American slavery, and the resulting nation-building off the backs of cheap African labor. But it would not be long before the growing tension between White America’s “declaration of independence” from European rule, and Black former slaves’ increasing demand for freedom and opportunity, would repeatedly clash, with Whites ultimately using violence and corruption to draw a line of control, to maintain power.
To be clear, violence was just one of the many tools at the disposal of White civic and political leaders to minimize Black citizenship and equity.
Convincing lower-class Whites that Blacks were taking rights from them, thus resulting in their dire circumstances, was also effective at harnessing anti-Black political power.
But violence, when deemed necessary, was most effective.
November 10, 1898 - Black people had built a strong political and economy base in Wilmington, NC, so much so that Whites became disturbed, burned down the Black newspaper, killed Black citizens at random, confiscated Black businesses and property, and took over Wilmington city government at gunpoint.
“The 1898 Wilmington insurrection was designed for the purposes of eliminating the African American vote and to re-arrange the political power in North Carolina,” says Irv. Joyner, vice-chairman of the 1898 Wilmington Race Massacre Commission. ‘Those purposes were successful and, as a result, Democrats held the reins of political power in North Carolina for more than a century and the ability of African Americans to vote was effectively suppressed until the 1980s.
Joyner then compared the nation’s only successful coup de’ tat in history, with last week’s nearly successful attempt to decapitate the U.S. government.
“The underlying focus of the January 6, 2021 attempted insurrection was a national effort, which was orchestrated by Donald Trump and his right-wing supporters, to undermine the exercise of the right to vote by African Americans and other people of color. This coordinated national effort to attack the African American votes which were cast in Atlanta and its surrounding area; Detroit and its surrounding area; Philadelphia and its surrounding area and Milwaukee mirrored, in real time, that 1898 voter suppression campaign and was designed to convince the public that African Americans and people of color were unqualified and had illegally voted against Donald Trump.”
Ironically, just four years ago, then Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, having lost a close re-election, also falsely claimed Black voter fraud.
That common goal of White Republicans and Trump to neuter the political power of African Americans was at the true roots of the January 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol. And the fear of not stopping the constitutional takeover of a White who is sympathetic to Blacks, and his Black female vice president, sparked a violent desperation.
By all accounts, Donald Trump’s deadly attempt to “make America great again,” failed, for an important reason.
“America is clearly brown now, and that’s the fear of these white supremacists, and all of the people who felt like they are superior,” says Congresswoman Alma Adams, who survived the siege. “I think that’s where the president was coming from in the beginning. His whole attack is on Black and Brown people.”
“Our country has been shamed by this president,” Rep. Adams adds.
And so, has the White supremacist movement.
