American Hypocrisy

About a week ago, a reader notified me that a review I published to this blog was from a book written by a woman who took part in the insurrection of January 6th. I did not know, as I had published the review months ago. I enjoyed the book, but I have since removed the review and deleted the read’s promotional tweets.

What happened at the Capitol was wild, but America’s hypocrisy amazes me.

Where was this energy when Tulsa and Rosewood’s black people had their homes raided, their communities bombed and their family killed? I have yet to hear the Ku Klux Klan declared a terrorist organization.

When black homes, businesses, and communities were bombed, the people who attacked them were not considered terrorists.

It wasn’t terrorism when strange fruit hung from trees.

Attacks on Black Americans are not considered “an attack on our democracy.”

When they dragged fourteen-year-old Emmett Till from his family’s home, shot him with a 45 caliber pistol, beat him to a pulp, and drowned him in a lake with a 75-pound cotton gin and barbed wire around his neck, his murderers were not deemed, terrorists.

They were acquitted.

When unarmed black men, women, and children are killed, the murderers are not considered terrorists.

Showing pictures of Malcolm X and Fred Hampton’s deceased body all over the newspapers was not “shocking,” nor was it “an attack on our democracy.”

On June 17, 2015, Dylan Roof walked into a church, killed nine black people, and injured one more person. Later, he confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war.

But when he was caught after the search, police did not “fear for their lives.” He was not shot dead.

On May 2, 1967, 30 Black Panthers walked into the California State Capitol building with rifles and shotguns (it was legal to carry back then openly) that catapult them into the national spotlight and made national headlines. From this point on, The Black Panthers were terrorists.

• Their headquarter offices were bombed and raided.
• Their members were shot and killed.
• The laws were changed, making it illegal to open carry.

Where is the outrage, America, when black people are attacked like your beloved Capitol? Where is this energy?

Americans are admonished never to forget 9/11.

Jewish Americans are admonished never to forget the holocaust.

But it is often stressed that Black American’s forget slavery and centuries of oppression.

We are not the same.

Malcolm X said, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

Today, social media and mainstream media are the newspaper, and if we are not careful, it would have us believe the same system that works for the oppressor is the same system that works for the oppressed.

No way was the Panthers politely told to leave the Capitol in California.

No way did the police stand by and calmly escort members of BLM off the streets during protests.

What happened on January 6th was wild, but it should not be surprising.

We are seeing only the beginnings of the “chickens coming home to roost” (to quote Malcolm) for America.

It is what it is.

“It was horrendous,” a CNN commentator called the January 6th events.

But so was watching a police officer put his knee on the neck of a black woman in 1963. And so was watching a police officer put his knee on George Floyd’s neck in 2020.

Let me make this a bit more plain: You watched a man die on TV.

But this was not considered an act of terrorism. Why? Because the same system that works for America is not the same system that works for black people.

Joe Biden said, “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America. This is not who we are.”

Respectfully, I disagree.

This is America and always has been America.

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Movie Night Friday is back with my review of these two movies coming to you in February.