Civics: January 6, 2021: Riot, Visit, Demonstration, or Insurrection?

anuary 6, 2021: Riot, Visit, Demonstration, or Insurrection?

Riot, Visit, Demonstration, or Insurrection? 47 pages; 9013 words, visuals

‘The Flag Is Drenched With Our Blood’

Charles M. Blow SEPT. 28, 2017, NY times
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CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times
Yes, Donald Trump has once again used racial hostility to rouse his base and is reveling in the achievement.(1)

According to The New York Times, when Trump’s advisers appeared lukewarm about the uproar he created by chastising, in the coarsest of terms, N.F.L. players who chose to quietly kneel to protest racial inequality and police violence, “Mr. Trump responded by telling people that it was a huge hit with his base, making it clear that he did not mind alienating his critics if it meant solidifying his core support.”(2)

Every way he is manipulating his majority-white base to oppose a majority-black group of private citizens is disgusting. Trump is disgusting. (3)

But I am also infuriated by his framing: that this has nothing to do with race (whenever you hear that, know that the subject at hand must have everything to do with race) and that this is just about patriotism, honoring national ritual, celebrating soldiers, particularly the fallen, and venerating “our flag.” (4)

What this misses is that patriotism is particularly fraught for black people in this country because the history of the country’s treatment of them is fraught. It’s not that black people aren’t patriotic; it’s just that patriotism can be a paradox. (5)

Many black people see themselves simultaneously as part of America and separate from it, under attack by it, and it has always been thus. (6)

Riot, Visit, Demonstration, or Insurrection? 47 pages; 9013 words, visuals