On January 6, 2021, when the nation would have otherwise been discussing the political implications of a black Baptist preacher and a Jewish activist being elected to the U.S. Senate from the State of Georgia, people were diverted by the white nationalists storming the United States Capitol Building after being edged on by a neo fascist want-to-be dictator. White rioters entered the Capitol without their bags being checked or security putting up much resistance. They took over offices of members of Congress and the Senate. They, the Proud Boys (KKK) and others had announced that they were coming. Everybody knew that after hearing right-wing speeches, they would then head to the Capitol to protest confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. And when they arrived, there was seemingly little significant resistance—as if someone opened the doors and said: “Come in”.
What happened to security? Where were those unidentified federal officers who attacked the peaceful protesters on Black Lives Matter Plaza last summer? Where was the National Guard, FBI, CIA, DEA, Homeland Security or MPD? Are we left to believe that no one expected that the mob was going to do what they said they were going to do?
How did America get to this juncture in history? Is this really about the narcissistic Donald Trump losing the election or is it something deeper? Why were so many people duped into believing that the election was fraudulent? Is it because of the genius of black women like Stacy Abrams who mobilized black voters in Georgia and help to inspire black and brown people all over the nation to vote in record numbers and thus got the president fired? No, it’s much deeper.
The storming of the U.S. Capitol has its genesis in America’s original sin—slavery. What culminated On January 6, 2021 goes a lot further back than when Barak Obama’s ascendency to the presidency threatened the foundation of white privilege in America and exposed the country’s insidious legacy of institutional and systemic racism.
In order to understand what happened on a day that will live on in infamy, you have to go back to the middle of the 18th century. In the spring of 1861, soldiers from southern states, primarily South Carolina, attacked Federal troops stationed at Ft. Sumpter. The Union soldiers were there under the orders of President Abraham Lincoln, who had been sworn in as the 16th President only a few weeks earlier, to defend the fort. That was the beginning of the Civil War, a war fought over America’s original sin of slavery. Over a million Americans became casualties in the Civil War and somewhere between 650,000 to 850,000 died. The Civil War began in April 1861, shortly after Abraham Lincoln became President. It supposedly ended four years later in April 1865, several weeks he was assassinated.
In the chronicles of many historians, the Civil War ended in the spring 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army under the command of General William T. Sherman in Georgia. I submit herein that the historians were wrong. The war between the states never ended. I further posit that great numbers of southerners simply traded their gray confederate military uniforms into white robes (KKK), police uniforms, black robes (worn by judges) and now blue jeans and with red baseball caps with the insignia MAGA. Oh, yea and many simply wear three-piece suits.
Let us call it like it is. Two months after being defeated in what he previously referred to as “landslide election” numbers, President Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric led to insurrection and seditious acts whereby his loyal supporters stormed the Capitol, the so called “temple” and emblem of democracy in America. (He should have been charge with inciting a riot) They followed the orders of the same president who refused to call out the white supremacists at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017. Moreover, even after a woman was killed at the gathering, he had the gall to called them “good people”.
Unequivocally, if those who storm the US Capitol were black, no one would have entered the Capitol building and there would have been dead bodies all over the steps. During the insurrection, President-elect Joe Biden spoke and said those who stormed the Capitol “are not reflective of who America is”. Wrong! Those who stormed the Capitol are just a microcosm of so many other people who think like them and have similarly held beliefs about race and power in America.
America is still at war with itself. A French journalist, Alexander De Tocqueville, wrote in the 18th century that race will always be a divisive issue in America because racist ideology is written into the constitution. A half century later W.E.B Dubois wrote in The Souls of Black Folks that America is a divided nation, one black and one white. And near the close of the 20th century, Dr. Cornell West reiterated the reality that Race Matters and always will.
In the middle of the 19th century Jefferson Davis became the President of the Confederate States of America. As a Christian, I don’t believe in reincarnation so I will just say that by his conduct, Donald Trump is the Jefferson Davis of the 21st century. His racial bigotry and inflammatory rhetoric about former President Obama not being an American citizen, his travel ban of Muslims, and his desire to deport immigrants were the rallying cries the old boys from the south (and the north, i.e. Michigan who tried to kill the governor) had been waiting to hear since the battle of Gettysburg. They needed a figure head to continue their crimes against people of color and humanity, and Trump, once a reality television host and now a master manipulator of social media became their Jefferson Davis to lead them to battle. (He, however like a coward stayed in the White House).
In conclusion, still today, God is not mocked. People will reap what they sow. Sin on last for a season. I believe that God will vindicate the oppress (Psalm 82). God will right the wrongs and avenge the hurt bring down all those who tolerated the spiritual wickedness done in high places. And for all the so-called evangelicals who failed to hold the president account so that they could push their conservative agenda they will be whipped with “many stripes” because they knew better. Yes, the word of God says that “judgment shall begin in the house of the Lord.
So, my brothers don’t stop trusting and don’t stop believing. God may not come when you first call Him, but He is always on time. Most of all remember who you are and to Whom you belong. Suffice it to say, the new administration has a lot of work to do in cleaning up another man’s mess. Yet, the deep divide in this country is as polarizing as it was when the Civil war started almost a century and a half ago. In reality the only time this country was really united was the period of time between the American Revolutionary War (late 18th century) up until the Civil War. And they were only then united because they were all in agreement that the enslavement of black people was permissible and profitable.
I could go on but let me leave with a word from King David: “Some trust in horse, some trust in chariots, but I will trust in the name of the Lord. (Psalm 20)