Storming of the capitol building

Photo courtesy of Journey Sherman

The storming of the United States Capitol was an act of domestic terrorism. Period. The so-called “Patriots” were anything, but that. They made a farce of the country and painted one of the most sacred places in the country to look like a Target on Black Friday.

Ever since this infamous event, both the media and everyday social media users have drawn a parallel between it and this past summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. To attempt to equate or merely compare the two events is an extreme injustice to the BLM movement.

This act of insurgence is only homologous to other evil events in history that occurred as a result of white supremacy and privilege. Even when comparing the two events as a means to highlight the double standard in police response, it still does more damage than good.

First of all, the purpose of both events are on totally opposite sides of the ethical spectrum. The people that stormed the capitol were throwing a hissy fit because their orange demagogue lost an election fair and square.

I mean seriously, how many times do they need to lose for the recount results to stick? Sure, when Trump won some liberals wore black to show they were in mourning, but what they didn’t do is deface a historic building.

The most fundamental difference between BLM protesters and those that stormed the capital is that the latter was not a form of protest, but rather a symptom of this country’s white supremacist bedrock coming to the surface.

The insurrectionist’s goal was never to get Trump back on the throne for another four years, but to assert their dominance and parade their entitlement for the world to see.

How can you compare these individuals to the Black Lives Matter protesters who just wanted the police to stop killing and brutalizing Black people?

You cannot. They protested as an act of survival. Yet, they were the “thugs” and “criminals?” The BLM movement took place to enact a positive change that is within the realm of reality. To all those people that are equating the destruction of a Walmart to a historic building that is over 200 years old, maybe start using those same comparison skills when it’s not a white boy getting killed, but a Black boy instead. All lives still matter though, right? Do all buildings matter? If a smashed flat screen means more to you than a Black life then don’t you ever say “all lives matter” again.

The day January 6, 2020, will forever go down as a day of shame and pure embarrassment for the country. If my future self went back in time and told me that thousands of people would manage to storm the country’s capitol building, gain access to the capitol’s floor where legislators were meeting minutes before, break into Nancy Pelosi’s office leaving her a note saying “we will not back down”, and still manage to get selfies with law enforcement, I bet I could tell you exactly what that group of people looked like.

As a Black person, there is no world I can imagine where I would survive even attempting to do any one of those things. This event may have been a wake-up call for some people, but it came as no surprise to many.

This was a boiling point that has been in the making since the founding fathers put pen to paper. Trump did not invent white supremacy. It has always been lurking. However, he did reinvigorate it.

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