What's the Opposite of an Ambush? - By Greer Clem

“This is America. Fuck D.C. it's in the Constitution. Bring your goddamn guns.”

That was just one of the online comments made on mainstream media and pro-Trump platforms in the weeks before yesterday’s events at the Capitol. As it turns out, MAGA supporters across the country had been planning their “protest” on January 6 for weeks. A Buzzfeed investigative article disclosed, “One account, with the name No Trump No Peace #GoTime, posted a GIF with a noose and a caption that said, ‘Who would you like to see 'dispatched' first? 1) Nancy Pelosi 2) John Roberts 3) Pence 4) other (please name) I was leaning towards Nancy, but it might have to be Pence.’”

When I woke yesterday, it was with optimism. Reverend Raphael Warnock had been declared the winner in his Georgia Senate runoff election and Jon Ossoff was well on his way to also being victorious. “This is a great day,” I said to my dad over breakfast. Within hours, we sat, hands clasped over our faces as we watched armed vigilantes storm the gates of our nation’s Capitol. Trump flags and confederate flags hung from balustrades. Rioters wore shirts with Nazi-like insignia and the abbreviation “6MWE” - six million wasn’t enough. How could this be? How was this our America? How did we not prepare for this?

What stupid questions. The reckoning of the past 24 hours has been enormous. After reposting a tweet which said, “Well that escalated quickly over the past four years,” a dear friend replied, “try the last 400.” She is exactly right.

What I personally want to take away from yesterday is that my whiteness gave me the luxury to wonder how this could be the America I live in. Years of inherent privilege in a system that oppresses Black and Brown people triggered within me disbelief at seeing the white faces of domestic terrorists allowed in to the Capitol armed with guns. Were they met with rubber bullets? Dogs? Guns? No. The President of the United States told them, “We love you. You are very special.” The same man who, not three months ago, said in a Presidential debate, “Proud boys, stand back and stand by.”

On June 2, 2020, the National Guard stood in flanks before the Lincoln Memorial as hundreds of peaceful protestors kneeled on the ground. Those protestors were masked to protect one another. Their shirts bore the names of Black and Brown Americans taken too soon by police violence. Their cause was not a fraudulent scam built on ego and greed. It was based on hundreds of years of oppression, murder, and betrayal. We talk the talk that their voices matter, that their plight is our plight. And yesterday we failed them. We failed them so grossly it nauseates me. We showed them just how imbalanced the scales are and it is inexcusable.

Who do we want to be? I look at who we are and force myself not to look away. I cannot deny that my passion for American politics is a privilege. Had I not been born into whiteness, I am certain this passion would not come so easily. It’s a privilege that I look at American democracy and see hope because I am part of a system that has never failed me. But I want to be part of a system that shows up for all Americans, without question.

To me, the power of democracy lies in its promise, not what it has delivered so far. The great American experiment has in most regards been a failure. We have not delivered basic human rights to all of our citizens. To say otherwise is to buttress a hollow purpose. To sit back in shock and awe at yesterday’s events is to deny what so many voices have been saying for so long: how did you not see this coming? When will you listen?

This was no ambush. This was not a sneak attack. This was the culmination of decades of white supremacy, the spark ignited by four years of President who has never pretended to be anything but a bigot to his core. The validation of their whiteness is what gave those vigilantes the “right” to break into the heart of our country. It is what shielded them from harm and what kept a violent response at bay. There can be no doubt that, had the color of their skin been different, there would have been a massacre.

With thirteen days left of the Trump presidency, we have to commit ourselves to ridding our country of this inherent bias. Any white American who supports democracy and freedom for all needs to take accountability for their role in this broken system. Because yesterday was no ambush: it was planned and announced and met with little resistance because of the inherent racism that exists in our country. We have to take accountability for our part. This is me trying to take accountability for mine.