January 6th began as a celebratory day for Democrats as Rev. Raphael Warnock and, later in the day, Jon Ossoff were declared victorious in Georgia’s runoff elections, securing a slim Democratic majority in the Senate. However, on Wednesday, white supremacist Trump supporters, many wearing clothing or carrying signs with racist and antisemitic language or symbols violently stormed the Capitol to disrupt the congressional election certification and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The insurrection resulted in five deaths and scores of arrests, while Senate leaders demanded that Pence invoke the 25th amendment and members of Trump’s cabinet began to step down, and House Democrats reportedly plan to vote to impeach Trump tomorrow.
Although many may have been shocked by the attempted coup, signs of a planned action proliferated across social media networks for months, and media coverage of the rally and planning was broadcast across alt-right websites, social media, and message boards. Trump has spent his years in power setting the stage for this threat to our democracy, convincing his supporters that their votes and opinions matter more than the majority of voters who chose to elect Joe Biden; if they didn’t receive everything they felt entitled to, it was because it had been unfairly taken from them, and there would be no consequences for their actions.
This belief in zero consequences reflects the racist double standard of policing in America. Despite the clear knowledge that there was a threat, calls for the National Guard were denied both before the rally and for over two hours during the violent insurrection, while Capitol police clearly limited their use of force against the mostly white crowd breaking into the Capitol. This show of restraint was shocking given the violent police responses we saw across the country toward unarmed protestors at this summer’s protests against systemic racism and police brutality. A stand needs to be made to investigate state compliance, hold instigators and collaborators accountable, and set up structures to prevent further threats to democracy.
Biden couldn't be more wrong when he proclaims that this action “[did] not reflect a true America.” While the majority of Americans voted against Trump, white rage has always been a part of our country’s history, from the Civil War to Jim Crow laws to the backlash to the civil rights movement, and it continues through to today. To move forward, we need to break down structures of white supremacy that brought the insurrection and other such events of organized racial violence to fruition.
Read on for more ways to take action together and call in white folks in the coming weeks.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about the events of January 6th in a historical context, check out SURJ national’s webinar, White Backlash: why it happens and how we fight back, on January 13th at 8:00pm, led by activist and scholar Robin DG Kelley.