With the official Martin Luther King, Jr. Day January 18 holiday in the offing (his actual birthday is January 15) we should be celebrating the positive impact of the civil rights leader on equality, social justice and human rights.
Instead, we are confronting the reality that, after decades of slavery, Jim Crow and the struggles of the post-Civil Rights Act, the Republican Party, steadfast in its preservation of racism as a political strategy, remains the greatest impediment to fulfilling the goals of Dr. King’s lofty crusade.
On January 6, incited by the President himself, we bore witnessed as live TV streamed images of terrorists smashed into the Capitol with police falling back as the mob surged. It was abundantly clear that law enforcement was ill-prepared to respond. It was also apparent that some police fraternized with the riotous mob while others seemed to facilitate its access to the hollowed chambers of our government. The marauding mob carried Confederate and white power flags and chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” To that purpose, the Republican insurrectionists had even brought restraints and erected gallows to lynch the Vice President and others they might deem their enemies. The violent images coming from the Capitol stunned viewers, especially people of color who immediately responded.
Among the cascades of comments my Black friends posted in real time on social media, one wrote, “Being black isn’t fun at all. I wish I were white. Like who really WANTS to be black? Absolutely nobody. Can you imagine having to be black for the rest of your life? How do I get my skin bleached so I can be lighter skinned? Seriously.” Another posted, “Hard not to remember that a violin vigil for Elijah McCain got tear gassed.” Elijah McCain, an innocent 23 year old man walking home from a convenience store, died as a result of police violence in Aurora, CO in August 2019.
Blatant Disparity
So blatant was the disparity in law enforcement’s response that even President-elect Joe Biden mentioned it in a speech given as the white supremacist barbarians at the gate wrought their mayhem and plunder.
People say how astonished they are about the lack of protection and security at the Capitol. I wasn’t. Once it was apparent that there were few police to face thousands of GOP inspired Putschists, the only explanation would the cooperation of certain leaders within the structures of the Republican Party itself. We only have to look to our Wisconsin Republican representatives—all of them—to see how their pursuit of power, profit and privilege trumps their oath to the Constitution. Sadly, rather than contrite accountability, we can only rely on their smug recalcitrant denials of their culpability as co-conspirators in the attempted coup d’état and as accessories to the murder of a Capitol policeman. They must go.
Meanwhile, we brace for the next round of insurgency.
In more positive and hopeful news, in the spirit of MLK Jr. Day, with its election of new Democratic US Senators Raphael Warnock, an African-American and Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish, Georgia finally seceded from the Confederacy.
