Commentary on the Storming of the United States Seat of Power.

What we witnessed yesterday, American citizens storming the capital, wreaking havoc as they rioted, was real. It is a fact. It was tangible. Like a malignant cancer, it was a manifestation of many toxic ‘malignant cells’ that have caused many symptoms in our society. Symptoms that have been largely ignored, not treated, not mitigated, not addressed. Symptoms that have metastasized into the pandemonium and melee we witnessed occurring at the United States Capital on January 6, 2021, the first week of the new year.

When I taught Political Science, and Pluralism and diversity in America, I taught of a recurring theme in American socio-political and economic history, past and present; that of redefinition. This theme of redefinition has been used in our society to oppress on the one hand or to placate on the other, the Minority population, to the benefit of the White majority.

The redefinition of citizenship, the redefinition of neutrality, the redefinition of race, the redefinition of who is human and what is property, the redefinition of equality, the redefinition of equity, the redefenition of access, the redefinition of the bedrock rights to life, liberty and property. It is this theme of redefenition that keep minorities from achieving the ever elusive dream of being treated equally and fairly in America and under the law, and of being as American as their White counterparts.

It is this same theme that keep the bar to achieving equal access to employment, housing, education, and the removal of the infamous glass ceiling for most, ever moving in favor of the White population, to the detriment of Black and Brown peoples. It is what gives demagogues a platform, a forum and an audience. It is what creates the slippery slope that fan the flames of hate for those stuck in the unfounded ideologies of our shameful historical past, propagated to create the environment that further fuels ignorance at the expense of wisdom, like what we witnessed at the Capital.

What we saw yesterday is the personification of parallel lives. That of the privilege of the White majority, pitted against the continued massacred, demonized and assaulted unprivileged lives of the Black and Brown minority.

It is Neo-Colonialism personified. It confirms for any in doubt, that there are grades/shades of American citizenship, and if you fall above a certain hue on the color spectrum, your American Life, no matter what terrible offense you commit, how unpatriotic your actions, or how violent your actions, is worth more, deserves more protection, your freedom deserving of more respect and your violent criminal acts warrant less scrutiny, than those people whose hue fall on the browner side of the skin color spectrum.

How then, do we teach our children about the values of equity, equality, of the rights hailed as sacred by the Declaration of Independence, of the Constitution, of love, of peace, and of empathy?

Our Americanism is a paradox. However, it is puzzling only to the ignorant. To the critical thinker, the seeming paradox is a carefully cultivated duplicity that has created the system we saw at work yesterday, and have been seeing at work all of our lives. It is this same duplicity of existence that demands Black and Brown people to foster a double consciousness just to exist in our society.

We who hold the Constitution and ALL its Amendments sacred, as the dynamic instrument that has undergirded the growth, development and strength of this nation from its humble and sordid origins, continue in our struggle to maintain the words of the Declaration of Independence as the guiding principle for the direction of this nation.

“We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Rights of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Contrary to the perception documented by other commentary suggesting any association or similarity between this incident and that of the French ‘Revolution and the storming of the Bastille, in a prior century, these were not the oppressed who stormed the United States seat of power seeking to topple their oppressors. There was no Liberty, equality, fraternity, (Liberté, égalité, fraternité), sought or chanted by these marauders, bands of rioters, as they proceeded in complete mayhem. Theirs’ was no revolutionary ideal, seeking to bring about noble change towards a more just society. Their joint actions amounted to an act of anarchy by a band of rebel rousers that reflect negatively on us all, exposing toxicities in our collective conscience that we would rather did not exist. The resulting chars was a stark exposure to all the world, of deep fractures and shortcomings within our society, our government, our democracy, our legal systems and our politics.

But why? To what end? What would rouse the attendees into such blind pursuit of such an unfounded and baseless mission? The answers to these questions continue to escape the reasonable mind.

The People have spoken. The die has been cast. The well oiled machinery/system of our democracy is underway to ensure the transition of power. Yesterday was pointless and exhausting, and a disgraceful mar on our democracy, reminiscent of our despicable historical past.

Why not support the brilliance of the Constitution and the intellectual prowess of our founding fathers, our evolving imperfect democracy that has brought us here, rather than ignobly and aimlessly, fruitlessly and shamefully assault these very truths that we hold as self evident, that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. WE ALL BELONG HERE. LIVE WITH IT AND LEARN TO LOVE IT.