Welcome to The Breaking Point, a weekly(ish) newsletter that explores the historical legacies of injustice based on the news cycle and culture trends to understand what in the world is going on.
At a time when words escape us during an event as cataclysmic as last week’s domestic terror at the US Capitol building, journalists work to find the right ones to tell the story and deliver facts immediately to the people. In events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, wars in the Middle East, and “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, journalists are always on the ground reporting, risking their lives, and giving us the first account of history.
Though finding the right words to describe an event like what happened last Wednesday is nearly impossible — even for journalists whose work is fueled by words. When I became a journalist, I never thought I’d come across carefully crafted words like this visceral description from reporters at NBC News:
Former Attorney General William Barr, who was with Trump last summer as National Guard members sprayed tear gas to disperse peaceful protesters so the president could hold a Bible for photo opportunity, admonished the rioters.
Or this lede from the Associated Press:
Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the presidential election winner before dawn Thursday after a violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in a stunning attempt to overturn the election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Trump in the White House.
Journalists also learn on the spot. The first few minutes of live coverage on Wednesday were spent calling the pro-Trump extremists who breached the capitol “protesters,” but most news outlets quickly shifted gears to “rioters,” “domestic terrorists,” “white supremacists,” and “insurrectionists” — and rightfully so. But even then, only a little more than a dozen had been arrested on the spot in the sea of hundreds of unmasked Trump supporters repping merch emblazoned with the US flag and their leader’s name.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The most poignant and truthful point made during the attack was that if these capitol-breachers were Black or people of color, they would have been shot on the spot before even reaching the steps of the building. It’s baffling to think that some capitol police risked and lost their lives, while the rest of their peers simply let the threat into the building. But the attack was unsurprising, really. Black, brown, and Indigenous folks knew something like this was going to happen. It was just a matter of when and how white supremacists were going to do it.
Think of it like this. For the last four years, we have been playing a game of Jenga. The tower of complicity — incited by centuries of oppression, colonialism, and injustices — grows taller, yet more vulnerable, the more we turn a blind eye, the more we fuel the fire, the more we forget, and the less we act and dismantle white supremacy head on. That tower slowly collapsed the moment Donald Trump — the Inciter-in-Chief endorsed by white supremacy groups like Proud Boys and former Ku Klux Klan leader and neo-Nazi David Duke — lost a second presidential bid and continuously promoted false claims of voter fraud. But who’s to say the tower didn’t fully collapse, and that a much bigger and more colossal event is coming?
After the attack, one sentiment that has been repeated over and over again, mostly by White folks, was a cry that “this isn’t America” or “this isn’t who we are,” despite America’s long, oppressive and tyrannical history. Hate to break it to ya, but this is and has always been the United States of America. NPR’s Sam Sanders perfectly captured this in his piece “The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Race,” as he wrote:
There is a lie some Americans tell themselves when America is on its worst behavior: "This isn't America!" or "This isn't who we are!" or "We're better than this!"
...
We are a country built on fabrication, nostalgia and euphemism. And every time America shows the worst of itself, all the contradictions collapse into the lie I've heard nonstop for the last several years: "This isn't who we are."
How long will society overlook such oppressive acts and colonial mentality? Are we going to continue playing with the tower of complicity? When will we fully dismantle white supremacy?
Figure of the week: $75 billion
The amount that climate change caused in flood damages in the United States in the past three decades, “accounting for about a third of total losses, Stanford University researchers said on Monday.” (Source: Reuters)
Photojournalists also played a laudable and vital role during the attack, capturing moments that spoke louder than words for the world to see. One particularly striking image taken by Andrew Harnik of the Associated Press was of New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim cleaning up in the aftermath of the attack. The image of Kim, son of Korean immigrants, kneeling on the capitol floor is the perfect symbolism of immigrants and people of color cleaning up after white people throughout American history.
Then there are the people, mostly conservatives, whose main argument is to compare the terrorist attack to the Black Lives Matter protests. They are not the same. Fighting for Black lives and racial justice is not the same as fighting to keep a fascist, white supremacist in office while waving hate symbols such as the Confederate flag and vandalizing government buildings with words like “murder the media.” A free press is the lifeblood of democracy.
America has always been racist. Its very fabric, the creation of this nation, was built on colonialism, oppression, slavery, racism, land grabs, exclusion acts against immigrants, and lynchings. Yes, the insurrection was unsurprising, but I never thought that a Confederate flag — the very symbol of hate and white supremacy in America — would be paraded down the halls of the United States Capitol building, the “people’s house,” the “citadel of democracy.”
And that noose. White supremacists erected a noose on the West Front of the capitol building. A potent symbol of hate and terror. As the nationwide protests for Black lives and racial justice blanketed major cities in America last year, white supremacists continued with their fear-mongering tactics by bringing a hangman’s noose. It’s the very symbol of the nation’s brutal history of mass lynchings of Black people. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) estimates that more than 4,700 people — nearly 73 percent Black — were lynched in the US between 1882 and 1968, though experts believe the number may be much higher.
Did Trump — now on his way out — “make American great again?” For white supremacists, he did. He succeeded. We moved backwards as a country. With a new Biden-Harris administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress, how do we move forward and build back better?
“[White supremacists] would rather see our country burn than see themselves shoulder-to-shoulder or as equal to others,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on her IG live Tuesday night. “The only way forward is a multiracial democracy.”
The Breaking Point is working with Grist’s solutions lab, Fix, on an incredible initiative it just launched: a climate-fiction short story contest.
Imagine 2200 calls for stories that envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress. What might the world look like in the year 2200, and how did we get there? Conjure your wildest dreams for society — all the sweet, sweet justice, resilience, and abundance we could realize — and put those dreams on paper. Submissions are open now, and will close April 12, 2021. Literary judges will include authors Adrienne Maree Brown, Kiese Laymon, and Morgan Jerkins. (How exciting!!) The top three contest winners will be awarded $3000, $2000, and $1000 respectively, and nine additional finalists will each receive a $300 honorarium. Winners and finalists will be published on Fix’s website and will be celebrated in a public-facing virtual event. Join this uprising of imagination, and help turn the page on earth’s next chapter.
Story breakers 📖
Why is cottagecore so white? by Angely Mercado, Grist
Critics say Elaine Chao’s resignation falls short: ‘The damage has been done’ by Kimmy Yam, NBC News
Ibram X. Kendi on why white America is still shocked by white supremacy by Fabiola Cineas, Vox
A model airplane slipped into a casket. A note under a pillow. Life at a funeral home as COVID surges by John Wilkens, Los Angeles Times
Despite Chaos And Calls To Resign, Trump Set To Oversee 3 Executions by Melissa Jeltsen and Jessica Schulberg, HuffPost
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