You may hear supporters of the riot yesterday argue that you cannot break into a house that you own--since "taxpayers" paid for everything in the Capitol. This rhetoric has a long history on the right. But put simply, "taxpayers" has almost always been code for white. (1/)

When I studied the Tea Party movement, there was a lot of focus on their identification with the term "we the people." But they also referred to themselves as "we the taxpayers," and liked to remind elected officials that they were their boss and paid their salaries. (2/)

Camille Walsh reveals this rhetoric's much longer history in her book, Racial Taxation, which shows that "tax policy and taxpayer identity were built on the foundations of white supremacy and intertwined with ideas of whiteness," esp wrt public school funding. (3/)

Walsh shows that white citizens have relied on appeals to “taxpayer citizenship” even when they pay far less in taxes than those they frame as "takers" on the system (mostly people of color). This gen finding is supported by other work, incl by @V_Williamson, @theotherisaac (4/)

Others should feel free to add other helpful cites here. TLDR: Taxpayer identity doesn't necessarily lead to the kind of violence we saw this week, but it undergirds a particular way of imagining one's place in the country that can make this seem reasonable. #fiscalsociology (5/)

Thanks to @JWileyLegath for sending me the video that got me fired up about this this morning (6/6)