The Back Road: Happy white privilege day

The Island Now

BY Andrew Malekoff

Several Republican Senators averted their eyes when, during the opening moments of the impeachment trial on Feb. 9, a compelling 13-minute video of the Capitol insurrection was shown.

Why? Were they feeling shame? Guilt? Indifference? Nothing? Although one cannot be certain, perhaps Sen. Ted Cruz said it best when he stated that it’s “time to move on.”

Just hours after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, Donald Trump tweeted: “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

“Remember this day forever” could very well be the opening words in a commemoration ceremony for the launch of a new holiday on Jan. 6, 2022 – White Privilege Day. Although some would argue that that’s every day in America.

White privilege refers to the inherent advantages possessed by white persons in a society exemplified by racial inequality and injustice.

It does not mean that white people do not encounter challenges and struggles in their lives, only that they are typically not related to the color of their skin.

Although it has already been widely expressed by now, it bears repeating that if hundreds of black folks wearing Black Lives Matter hats stormed the Capitol building, scaled the façade, smashed windows, broke down doors, chanted f*ck the police and called for the deaths of the vice president and speaker of the house, we would not see a video like the one that was projected on the first day of the impeachment trial. It would simply never get that far.

Instead, we would see BREAKING NEWS clips, around the clock, of blood splattered on the steps and the walls of the Capitol building, body bags, and scores of handcuffed invaders being led to buses for transport to legal processing and incarceration.

And, soon thereafter, instead of an impeachment trial, there would likely be a Patriots Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, well-populated by people wearing red caps. There would be no cries of f*ck the police, only chants of Blue Lives Matter, accompanied by a firework display and air show by the Blue Angels.

The Jan. 6 white supremacist marauders were enabled to do what they did because of their white privilege and the inspiration and tacit orchestration by Good Old’ Boy Donald Trump. He revved them up for months, cheered them on for hours, honored them in the end by stating how much he loved them and how special they are, and then fortified them upon their exit by reminding them to “remember this day forever”.

Forty-four Republicans cowards and traitors voted against holding an impeachment trial for Donald Trump who incited the vicious riot, and then they averted their eyes and looked down at their shoes because they are cowards who want all of America to know is that it is “time to move on” and recognize that democracy only applies to people of a certain color.

In her second book Caste, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson stated that after Trump won the election in 2016 that “the election was a victory for him and for the social order he had been born to.” In fact, she recalled, after the election Trump said to those around him, “I remember a time when everybody knew their place. Time we got back to that.”

On Jan. 6, 2021 he got his wish. Happy White Privilege Day!

 

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