By James Nichols-Worley ‘23
Feel Uncomfortable
Have you examined just how you feel about January the 6 2021? Do you feel uncomfortable?
On Wednesday, supporters of President Trump broke into the U.S. Capitol after leaving his rally. By all indications, they were egged on by Mr. Trump’s previous comments. He refused to promise to concede if he lost in 2016 (Lind, 2016). He falsely claimed that millions of people illegally voted in 2016 (Nichols, 2019) and for months tweeted that there were widespread voting irregularities in the 2020 election, or that specific states unconstitutionally allowed people to vote.
We pride ourselves on a sense of there being one truth - there are no alternative facts. There is no getting around the fact that Mr. Trump inspired the sieging of the Capitol. Sixteen high profile individuals have already resigned (The New York Times, 2021) with several more certain to follow. The Vice President, Mike Pence, reportedly hasn’t spoken with Mr. Trump for nearly a week (McEvoy, 2021). Nearly the entire Democratic Caucus is unified in calling for the Presidency to be vacated by any means possible, and they’re joined across party lines by multiple Republicans, like Senators Pat Toomey, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Representative Adam Kinzinger, and a majority of the American public (McCaskill). Some of the largest corporations in America are pausing political donations to those “who objected to President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win” (Cutter et al., 2021).
To be sure, Mr. Trump’s rally preceding the riot poured gas on a fire. Words like:
“you’ll never take back your country with weakness… You have to show strength… We will never give up We will never concede… You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore… we will stop the steal… [If] you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” (Savage, 2021) provided fuel for raging flames.
But the buck does not stop there. These words were merely gasoline on in the inferno.
You don’t even have to take my word for it. Peruse the laundry list of white nationalists, conspiracists, and supporters of the president waving Trump flags. Michael Phillips and Jennifer Levitz, for The Wall Street Journal, described Doug Sweet, a rioter who broke into the Capitol: “Mr. Sweet says he took his marching orders from the president and walked east” (2021). Also included in the group was Eric Munchel, who dawned camo and was seen carrying zip tie restraints, Cleveland Meredith Jr., who authorities say texted that he would put “a bullet in her [Speaker Pelosi’s] noggin on Live TV,” (Astor et al., 2021) the Proud Boys, a far-right men’s only group, and state lawmaker from West Virginia, among many, many others. All who “had one thing in common: a… certainty that President Trump had won re-election.” (Ailworth et al., 2021)
Does this make you uncomfortable? The unmistakable, nauseous, gasoline-like smell of white supremacy and white nationalism. Confederate flags circled around the Capitol like the lips of a burning conflagration. Doug Sweet “[liked]… Mr. Trump’s defense of Confederate war memorials… [He] felt Mr. Trump was trying to ‘preserve America.’” (Levitz & Phillips, 2021)
But just how and why do you feel uncomfortable?
I spoke with Dr. John Daves, the Director of Community & Equity Affairs here at St. Mark’s. Nothing that makes you uncomfortable can be thoroughly challenged without the insight of others.
Dr. Daves describes it best: “White nationalism is really about the belief that America is a country designed to serve white people.” Consider how much power the President’s words hold. At his rally, he told his supporters, “But just remember this, you're stronger, you're smarter. You've got more going than anybody and they try and demean everybody having to do with us and you're the real people. You're the people that built this nation. You're not the people that tore down our nation.” (Jacobo)
To Dr. Daves, “the literal meaning of the speech is white supremacy. The actual truth is that the U.S. Capitol was built by slaves.” The President and his allies spread the myth of a white America, echoing the calls of the alt-right heard four years ago in Charlottesville of “They will not replace us.”
Black Lives Matter activists, who have been working for years to bring justice to an unjust system, expressed frustration at the incredible disparity of police action at the Capitol riot (Eligon, 2021). Not only was there a major disparity in arrests compared to previous Black Lives Matter protests, but there was also a disparity in how the rioters were treated (Click & Shamsian, 2021). The rioters, carrying the flag of a foreign country that was at war with America for the entirety of its existence, were able to break into the seat of American democracy, threaten a hostile takeover, and then leave.
“White supremacy, really the practices of white nationalism and white supremacy, is that the rioters' lives are valued more than the black and brown protestors. See the contrast between the police presence at the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests compared to the underpolicing of the riots. This shows the disparity in the over policing of the community.” Dr. Daves remarked.
(Via Business Insider)
In an Opinion published last weekend in The Wall Street Journal, former D.C. assistant attorney and White House official Jeffrey Scott Shapiro defended Mr. Trump’s action from a legal standpoint, citing “language based on Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), in which the Supreme Court set the standard for speech that could be prosecuted without violating the First Amendment. The justices held that a Klu Klux Klan leader’s calls for violence against blacks and Jews were protected speech. The court found that [these] comments were ‘mere advocacy’ of violence...” (Shapiro, 2021)
The basis of Mr. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rhetoric lies in the disenfranchisement of non-white Americans (Burns, 2020). The basis of Mr. Trump’s supporters holding a beacon of democracy hostage was a gross ideological and racial disparity in policing. The basis of Mr. Trump’s legal defense rests on precedence used to defend lynchings.
Does this make you upset?
Do you feel like there has been a great injustice committed?
Do you think you understand why all this chaos happened, or why it’s such a big deal?
(Nichols-Worley, 2020)
The riots at the Capitol made nearly everyone uncomfortable.
The day of, a Tammy from Boise called into C-SPAN:
I just have one question. I wanted to know if my president lied to me today. If he did I want him to tell me. More importantly, I want him to tell the family of the woman who got shot and killed today. I voted for him — I voted for him. I’m sorry. (Matthews, 2021)
Who have you talked to about what happened?
It is probably one of the hardest conversations you’re going to have right now. For many here at St. Mark’s, this is rightly a passionate subject. It is whether or not white supremacy and lies will dominate our future.
To be sure, it will still lie in our future. Already, its enablers have started trying to rehabilitate its image. They will claim that both sides are equally guilty, falsely saying that Black Lives Matter protests were similar if not worse (they were not). Sitting Congressman will falsely claim that Antifa, which is not a group, let alone a terroristic one, was behind the protests (Contorno). Most of all, however, they will continue to ignite the kindling that caused this insurrection. They will attack voting.
The night of the riots, after Congress had finally resumed its session, nearly every Republican Senator or Congressperson condemned the rioters. Yet, oddly, they continued to use the same rhetoric that started the riots in the first place. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remarked, “I support strong State led voting reforms. Last year’s bizarre pandemic procedures must not become the new norm.” (Rev, 2021)
Racist ideas can propagate largely through plausible deniability. That is what a dog whistle is, a comment that can be plausibly denied to have a racist innuendo, but still resonates and is understood by its intended audience.
Those, like Ted Cruz, will condemn the Capitol rioters and then proceed to question the validity of the election, saying he’d even still do so with hindsight (Gillman, 2021). On his Twitter account, Senator Cruz called it a lie that “debating an Election Commission in the Senate somehow supports terrorist violence.”
To be very clear: Mr. Cruz and his colleagues are practicing the rhetorical equivalent of condemning the Civil War yet defending slavery.
Do you disagree with this characterization? Did you once disagree, but have since changed your mind?
Does it make you uncomfortable to consider any of this?
At the present, we need to be equipped to face these challenges. Already, many of our classes have broached the subject. But is it enough? Consider, have you been able to fully explore your understanding and your emotions? Do you feel like you can actually talk about this with your classmates, your peers, your teammates, or your friends? Are you worried about disagreement? Have you considered what you’re going to do in the future?
We need to confront these issues as head-on as we can. We need to start taking these discussions to points that will make us uncomfortable, and keep going.
We should follow the lead of our own, great, Mr. David Lyons, who was featured in the Metrowest Daily News: “[His] approach going into class on [last] Thursday was ‘not to set parameters on the discussion.’ Instead, he planned to start class with: ‘It was an extraordinary day and it became, obviously, even more extraordinary. What are your reactions, thoughts or questions?’” (Razzaq, 2021)
This challenge is no different than your classes or your sports: It should not be easy because it needs to make you stronger. No scientist ever understood relativity without trial, and no runner ever got to state without tribulation.
If you’re not willing to change your opinion, or share your opinion freely and defend it, will you claim to be not just a non-racist, but an anti-racist? If you’re unwilling to be confronted that you may be wrong, how are we going to ever improve?
And, to be honest, I don’t know how we’re going to get there easily. What is maybe the most significant domestic attack to happen in American history should not be able to slip past us. We have a duty to not let it. We, not just as a school, but as the individual people who make it up, need to confront this and never stop. We need more conversations that make us feel uncomfortable talking about blatant white supremacy and white privilege. Feel uncomfortable that not everyone agrees with you. Feel uncomfortable talking about injustice because you don’t know everything. I definitely don’t.
One of the last things Dr. Daves said to me, and the one I will probably keep with me the longest, was, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. Until we gain a greater understanding of the lenses through which we see the world as white people, black people, and Asian points of view, we cannot begin to truly understand the truth behind America’s living history. Whether we’re voluntary immigrants or involuntary immigrants. We need to understand history from our own point of view and the views of others if we continue to strive to be a nation that is a role model for democracy for ourselves and the world.”
This will not be solved by unilateral action. This will not be solved only by what the School can do. Talk to the people you know. Talk to your friends. Stay on an uncomfortable Zoom call for two hours. Start a club dedicated only to this one subject if you have to. If we have to reorganize the entire school just to get it through our heads that we cannot let this opportunity slip out of our hands, then so be it. There might not be any more noble action that we can take than facing the wrongs that make us uncomfortable.
And then we never stop making them right.
(Since we don’t really have Letters, please forward any responses for this article to thejamesnicholsw@gmail.com and I’ll work hard to respond to or publish them.)
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