OPEN THREAD: TELL ME HOW YOU “REALLY” FEEL ABOUT YESTERDAY & LAST NIGHT
I really was optimistic about 2021 (I really was). But if yesterday was any indication, we are all in for a continuation of absolute F***eary (I’m sorry family, I really can’t think of a better word right now). Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. What do we call that? Chaos. Insurrection. Treason. I guess all of the above. Fox News is still calling it patriotism. Bless their hearts.
I honestly tried to avoid the cable news cycle yesterday, outside of checking for Georgia (GA you did the thang), but by early afternoon, I was glued to all the stations, watching the imagines. I was locked in on Twitter – following the memes (Black Twitter really showed out and remains undefeated).
My takeaways came in waves – I wish I was writing them down because I had a few good ones but I can’t remember them all right now. So instead of me writing all of my light bulb moments from yesterday and last night, I’d like to hear yours.
TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL ABOUT WHAT WENT DOWN YESTERDAY AND LAST NIGHT. THE FLOOR IS YOURS. (POST YOUR COMMENTS)
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It’s just funny how they preach there isn’t a such thing as “privilege” in this country but it’s on display blatantly. If they got the same treatment protesters of last year got they’d be crying “what did I do?”. Lol.
I find it funny how many conversations we have about white privilege and people still argue if it’s real. It’s very real.
Yesterdays events had me awake today at 4 am. I haven’t been up this early since retiring form the military in 2014. What we are witnessing is the fall of our GREAT Nation. As a history buff I see the shadows of Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece, all empires that ruled for MUCH longer than America but fell due internal political conflicts that led to the eventual split of their respective empires into fractured areas and a protracted civil war between the divided regions. This allows outside nations to come and finish the job. This is where we are right now.
China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq and I’m gonna say it…… ISRAEL are all sitting back planning their next moves like CHESSMASTERS and we are dealing with a failed reality tv star, business “mogul”, who can’t even play checkers or “go fish” for that matter.
I have been deployed to every conflict since the 1990 Gulf War (Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and humanitarian missions to Africa, Vietnam, Thailand) and I can tell you first hand that America is seen as source of HOPE and FREEDOM to the oppressed people in those countries. I can only image what the WORLD thinks of us now.
I pray that is the darkness before the dawn. That this is the unrest (that my parents went through) of the 60’s that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil rights Act. So maybe we are in the water hose, lunch counter & school integration, police brutality (we seem to STAY there, huh?) part of this movement and will come out to of the other side better for it. That is my PRAYER AND HOPE for America. But as of 6:00 am on Jan 7th 2021………….I need a drink and a hug. #saddayinamerica #unreal #thisiscrazy #DudeGottaGo #NOW
I feel like white people need to own this shit.
Too much of what Trump is about has been allowed to be normalized over the last four years.
Like it’s okay and “normal” that half a political party is in thrall to a “leaders” whose only consistent principles are egoism and stoking a hard white political base.
This has been studied and named, and yesterday’s events were telegraphed, yet there was way too much complacency from established leaders in calling out the risk, in drawing a line and standing up to hold it.
What “owning this shit” looks like I don’t know other than it involves going deep, more listening than speaking, and letting everything be on the table. This must lead to a reckoning and consequential policies actions that strike at the heart of structural racism in the United States, at every level of government and society.
If the events of yesterday don’t lead to such a reckoning, what could?
I feel you. There is a lot of white privilege in the idea of “individualism.” Having America look at someone as just an individual. Black people have felt a shared sense of community (whether deserved or not) just by being Black in America. I’m not sure white people will be able to “own their place” because of this disconnect.
I don’t know where to begin. I woke up yesterday with a feeling of excitement with the news coming out of Georgia. That feeling of hope, that we where turning the corner towards brighter days, didn’t last long. The events that took place yesterday were the result of our collective issues. They are the same issues that have been slowly coming to a head for years. The same issues that exploded this summer across the country, sped up by the pandemic and a president ill fit to lead us through it. The issue of race is glaring. A majority white crowd, storming the “people’s house,” with an obvious ease. A far cry from the police responses to the BLM protests just months ago. The issue of leadership is glaring. The problems with Trump are numerous and well documented and that’s were most of the blame goes. But we need to starting looking at those who lead us at the state and local level too. For far to long we have settled for the best of two crappy choices. Most of whom have settled for tweets and sound bites rather than trying to work out differences in the name of progress for all. Then there is the issue of media. It has polarized us and polarized those who lead us. If you had on CNN or MSNBC yesterday you would have heard pundits calls of sedition, treason and the need to remove the president. If you turned on FOX you would have heard their personalities trying to justify the frustrations of an illegitimate election. I went to bed last night wondering how much more we can take before it all finally comes crashing down. Today hasn’t erased any of my concerns. The president looks like he will get another a pass, the republicans continue their efforts to undermine an legitimate election, and democrats just continue to talk about doing something. We allowed a line to be crossed yesterday that if we do nothing to address it will only continue our spiral into disarray. Twitter and Facebook may have been our saviors last night when they took down the president’s accounts. Thirteen more days.
The hypocrisy is glaring, right? And you’re right about elected officials getting a pass outside of the president. There are a ton of local and state elected officials (and Congress too) fan the flames of yesterday.
Right now I don’t care about who is privileged and who isn’t. I don’t care about the narratives of inequality. I don’t care about the blatant hypocrisy. I care about what’s happening in the hearts and minds of the American people. They are being twisted into something that will lead us down a path we can’t return from.
Fear, manipulation and intimidation. Those are the tools of a bully. Ironically, the bully uses these tools because they are also afraid. In this case, the bullies are American institutions of authority. Whether it be the government, the media or corporations that further their interests through these channels, the same tactics are used on ALL Americans citizens. And now that people have begun fighting back against the bully, their last resort is turn us against each other.
At this point I’m legitimately baffled at how they’ve been able persuade us into thinking that we are each other’s enemies, that we are the threats, when in truth they are the biggest threat. But it’s been accomplished, and convincingly so. You mean to tell me half of the country doesn’t want freedom for all? Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness for everyone? This is a nightmare. I can’t help but feel like this is manufactured outrage in a social experiment on the American people. I desperately wish that people would rely more on first hand information and experiences. Maybe then we’d see each other as humans and countrymen, and not the perverse ideas and political ideology that have been fastened to our backs like nuclear warheads, leading us into chaos and destruction.
I’ve found myself largely amused by the spectacle of it all, although it has been sobering to see the negative impact the events continue to have on people’s psyches. For energy preservation sake, I have tried to ration my doomscrolling and spinning on the subject, which has allowed me to distance myself from the full gravity of the situation.
As others have mentioned, this was telegraphed for quite awhile, so not shocked or surprised. But I acknowledge it’s still surreal and can be a heavy weight to carry. I’m fascinated by the commonalities of the times we are in with the early 20th century, as I think it provides insight on what’s to come.
On the bright side, I look forward to the second Roaring 20s once we’re finally able to be out safely. On the dark side, the energy of many of the attempted coup participants matches the blood lust exhibited by perpetrators of the white supremacist massacres that took place in Tulsa, Wilmington, Elaine, Arkansas and elsewhere a century ago.
Many of those attacks were driven to quell rising economic and political empowerment among African Americans. While I can’t point to analogous present day examples that serve as a legitimate threat to white power and comfort — Stacy Abrams and other Black organizers/activists’ ongoing efforts not withstanding — it’s apparent these people feel there’s a need to lash out and irrational bullets know no names.
As reports of more armed protests come to light, I hope there aren’t attempts to meet and match that energy. Violence, the incremental or the performative aren’t going to repair these wounds. I believe the solve starts and ends with love and will conclude with a prescient passage from James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time.” “White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.”