It looks like we had three holidays in January: Jan. 1, New Year’s Day, Jan. 16, Martin Luther King Day, and Jan. 6, White Privilege Day.
I kid you not. Think of it like this: What if a group of Native Americans were to storm the Capitol in an effort to mitigate the treaties that were broken? I wonder how many of those left standing would have gone to jail before the sun came down?
Or if a bunch of Vietnamese, or any Asian group that America has done wrong, were to raid the Capitol to settle things properly? Ever wonder how many would be arrested?
I don’t have to tell you how many would have been arrested had they been Black. None. Not one, because all of them would have been shot dead. Remember Tulsa?
There is not a Black person on this planet who has to wonder. We all know that they would have been shot on the spot. The National Guard would have been there before they took their first foot off the bus.
Dogs would have been let loose, fire hydrants would be opened to hose, and SWAT teams would be on roofs, no matter how legitimate or noble their cause might have been.
Even Major Garrett, a very white reporter, alluded to it at the time on CBS Evening News: “One has to wonder how the riot would be treated differently if the protesters were Black.”
Guess how many white people were arrested on that day? 61. That’s right, out of the thousands of people, on that day, only 61 were arrested; the rest were allowed to walk away.
These terrorists — and according to the dictionary, that is what they are: “ter.ror.ist, noun, A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims” — were treated with such privileges that it makes you think that there is no justice at all in America. This is a stark contrast to the 300 peaceful BLM protesters who were arrested on June 1, 2020. Police treated them differently, they used tear gas, had helicopters overhead, and the National Guard (the same National Guard that Trump stalled on calling) was there in a trice. According to the data of the Metropolitan Police Department, they arrested more than five times as many people at the height of the BLM protests as they did at the siege at the Capitol. Those arrested were charged with minimum charges, even though more D.C. Police were injured, and five people, including a police officer, were killed. That information is from the police themselves; Lord knows what the actual stats are.
These vigilantes were treated with such kid gloves that it makes you think there is no righteousness at all for Black people in America, “the land of the free.” White people enjoy the luxury of knowing they are like Teflon, even the poor ones.
Jacob Anthony Chansley, remember him? He was the one with the buffalo head and nice abs. Well, he insisted on having only organic food, because he was a shaman, and as far as I can research, he got it.
I don’t recall Fanny Lou Hamer getting special food because she tried to vote.
A married couple asked the judge if they could go on a vacation they had been planning and already paid for. And the judge said yes.
President Biden just had a kind of mournful celebration in the White House on Jan. 6. A kind of American version of Guy Fawkes Day.
Guy Fawkes Day goes back to 1605, when a bunch of Catholic “plotters” tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. Today, the U.K. celebrates it with fireworks and calls it Bonfire Night.
People will have forgotten those five who were killed by their fellow Americans; killed because the rioters believed a lie, even though deep in their hearts, they knew it wasn’t true, but didn’t care. They wanted the world to be run their way, and this was a good excuse to make it happen. Plus, there were free buses, and rich people were on their side.
Don’t make me lose my pretty ways by telling me that it was a spontaneous romp. It was so clearly premeditated. Buses to take people to the capital for free were paid for by corporations as well as the super-rich, such as Juli Fancelli, who effectively owns Publix, a chain of grocery stores in the South. The woman gave $3 million to “bus protesters” rallying against presidential election results on Jan 6, 2021. Of that $3 million, she set aside $250,000 for buses. She paid for the peons to do her dirty work. She even said so herself. When she was interrogated by the House panel, they asked her if she expected the Jan. 6 event to be “anything other than peaceful.” She said, straight up, no.
Our favorite bad boy Alex Jones was given $200,000, with $50,000 earmarked for a “rally operating budget.” I didn’t make those figures up, they came from the Jan. 6 Select Committee, and no Republican seemed to be embarrassed.
OK, so now is the time to make our New Year’s resolutions. Do you think Biden could resolve to fix the water situation in Jackson, Miss., as quickly as he promised to aid Ukraine?
Ukraine, the country that refused to let Black students flee the country during the war. The country which barred African women from trains leaving Kyiv, even though there were empty seats. The country that charged all BIPOCs, including naturalized Black citizens, a fee in order to escape. And what about Olena Zelensky, who reportedly spent $40,000 on a shopping spree in Paris between Dec. 12 and 14, with President Emmanuel Macron’s wife?
You mean to tell me that you can give $100 billion worth of aid to Ukraine, and you can’t find enough money to aid the people of Jackson? Do I look stupid to you?
OK, it is true that 45 percent of us break our New Year’s resolution within two weeks. Worse than that, even more have forgotten what they were.
So maybe it’s better that Biden does not resolve to make things better in Jackson, Miss., since the odds of keeping his resolution are slim and none. Maybe if he just says to himself, “I can see the areas where I can do better, and I can see the areas I am already doing as good as I can, so I will take one of those billion dollars and invest it in science and the health of my fellow Americans in the South.” That way he will feel better about himself.
Goals are very important; they motivate our behavior. Feeling good about yourself is vital. If Biden meets this goal, he will feel good, because he will have accomplished something tangible.
So what are you doing next White Privilege Day? Why not join Karen and Muffy in an ice-skating party, and watch them enjoy their white privileges along with fireworks and a bonfire?
