Read on Twitter
1/ A few thoughts re: the increasingly accepted (and somewhat obvious) wisdom that "if the people who stormed the capitol had been Black they'd have been beaten or shot." This is true, so far as it goes, but too simple, in a way that MINIMIZES the power of whiteness in America...
2/ Don't misunderstand, I'm glad whenever white folks begin to see this kind of thing, and we all start somewhere. But there are at least 3 levels at which leaving it with the above argument minimizes the issue of systemic white supremacy (not just privilege)...
3/ First, to say "if they'd been black they'd have been beaten or shot," ignores a key element of white supremacy: the mentality of white entitlement, which led them to think they could do what they did w/o consequence in the first place...
4/ Put another way, Black folks doing this wouldn't have been shot bc Black folks would have KNOWN they couldn't have done this shit. And Black folks wouldn't have felt the level of entitlement to just try and overthrow the damned government like that...
5/ And that's deep when you think about the fact that there are plenty of times Black folks would have LOVED to overthrow the government and stage a coup for Black lives and freedom and democracy for all. All the way from the beginning of the country...
6/ But only white folk carry that mentality of entitlement that leads us to say, "let's just set off the revolution now...surely everything will be fine..." Black folks know even peaceful protest is met with violence (100s of videos over the summer show it), let alone this shit..
7/ So that's the first way in which white supremacy is implicated in the differential treatment: at the level of having something like this to respond to as cops in the 1st place...But there are two more levels...
8/ Second, to say 'if they'd been Black they'd have been beaten or shot,' ignores that if a group of Black people had been ADVERTISING a pending coup for a month, the Capitol steps would have been covered w/Capitol cops, DC police, National Guard, DHS, BOP, etc...
9/ None of the Black folk would have been shot bc none would have been able to get near the building. Law enforcement would have responded en masse. And this reveals an important truth about the SYSTEM of law enforcement, rather than just individual cop biases...
10/ The system of law enforcement simply does not see white people as a threat, even when those white people are literally threatening to overthrow the existing political and legal order from which those cops derive their power. Ask yourself, WHY?
11/ I mean, cops are the ultimate example of the system, right? So trying to overthrow that, you would THINK, would be seen by law enforcement as a threat to them. Ah, but it wasn't, at least not the way it would have been with Black folk who were advertising a coup. Again, why?
12/ Simple: Law enforcement as an institution does not exist, functionally, to serve "the system" in some generic sense (i.e., to protect its component parts like Congress, from harm). Rather, it functions to serve the existing social and cultural order (and economic order)...
13/ Which means you police Black people more harshly when they protest and whites less so (even when they attempt a coup), because the former are trying to alter the existing order and the latter are fighting to preserve it from the Black and brown folks seeking to change it...
14/ So when white folks threaten a coup to defend the existing order of white male domination symbolized by Trump (which they see threatened by his defeat and the Black and brown folks they associate with Democrats and liberals), of course cops don't mass to stop them...
15/ Law enforcement has always been about protecting the dominant group from subordinate groups. They would mass for Black protesters bc those protesters would likely be taking aim at the hierarchy, not defending it. For whites, cop culture says that defending Trumpism is fine...
16/ This is an important realization: it puts the problem on the system of policing, not individual biases that can be "trained away" or something. Law enforcement has NEVER been about protecting and serving all equally, and this shows where their institutional sympathies lie..
17/ That is the second element of white supremacy: the alignment of institutional power with the maintenance of white (and male) hegemony. Which is also why BLACK cops can't treat white people the way cops (of all colors) treat Black people: it would upend the system...
18/ That's why we got to see that sickening video of that Qanon terrorist chasing that Black cop up the steps. Because the Black cop -- the CAPITOL COP -- was powerless in that moment. His job, whether he knows it or not, is to defend white domination, NOT THE CAPITOL...
19/ And now the 3rd piece: to say 'if they'd been black they'd have been beaten or shot' ignores that if they'd been white but storming the capitol as allies, fighting for Black lives, reparations, the end of capitalism, or any significant left goal they'd have been brutalized...
20/ Bc THAT would have been a rebellion to challenge the race/class order. The reason Black folk are more likely to be brutalized in that scenario is bc Black folk are more likely fighting for justice and democracy, while whites are more likely fighting against it...
21/ And cops are not about justice or democracy and never have been...Exactly the opposite. And THAT, right there, is the biggest lesson of all. If you learn nothing else from this, learn that. If you teach nothing else, teach that.
