"The Proof is in the Privilege." (Post #80)

Here's healing.  If you fall off your bike and scrape your knee, you don't bandage the wound before cleaning it.  You instead deal with the impurities.  Why?  You do this so that you can promote greater purity, despite the harm. 

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(Brace with me, this is a long one.  However, I pray that the end and the learning are both worth your time.)
 
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, thousands of attendees gathered in Freedom Plaza to participate in the Save America March.”  Per the President, the march was designed for “patriots” to stand against the fraudulent results of the “stolen” 2020 Presidential election. 

​Speakers were all in one accord with outrage for the perceived injustice, as they pledged to “stop the steal.”  Professor John C. Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, Jr., and Rep. Madison Cawthorn all enraged the audience with vitriol towards the democratic process.  Even going as far as demanding that Vice President Pence deny the majority voice of America, and overthrow the results. 
 
It is essential for those who are struggling to note that President Trump and his allies have filed or participated in over 60 post-election lawsuits.  It’s important to note that nearly all of the cases were dismissed or dropped as a result of a lack of evidence, being “frivolous,” and significantly “without merit.” 
 
So, there’s that…

President Donald J. Trump

​Anyway, the assembly was at a breaking point when the 45th president took the podium.  He gave a stirring speech, filled with inconsistencies, lies, and recklessness.  While much of his speech was in keeping with what we've always known and expected from the President, his closing remarks will forever be deemed beyond complicit (exact transcript)…
 
“I want to thank you very much, and they go off to some other life, but I said something is wrong here, something is really wrong, can't have happened and we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.  Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country, and I say this despite all that has happened, the best is yet to come.  So, we are going to--we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we are going to the Capitol, and we are going to try and give--the Democrats are hopeless, they are never voting for anything, not even one vote but we are going to try--give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help, we're try--going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So, let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
 
After this, America witnessed what only the naïve perceived as unthinkable. 
 
Around 1pm, hundreds of Trump supporters violently attacked police officers, pushed through barricades, broke the Capitol's perimeter, and scaled the walls.  The crowd used chemical agents, lead pipes, and aggression to overwhelm the “blue lives,” in order to gain terroristic entry.  You name it, they had it.  They possessed Confederate flags, anti-Semitic paraphernalia, racial slurs, an erected noose (that’s crazy), plastic handcuffs, military-style vests, and Kevlar helmets.  There was nothing passive, peaceful, or protesting about this assembly.  This was an insurrection, terroristic, and treasonous. 
 
Here’s a fair question to ask -- How does something like this happen?  Well, that’s where things get interesting. 
 
It's important to note that in 24 hours, President Trump, his allies, supporters, and the terrorists incited by his rhetoric proved the relevance of several #BLM guiding principles. 
 
The Black Lives Matter Coalition seeks equality in policing, restraint in policing, abstaining from unnecessary violence within policing, and a respect for all people. 
 
The “Save America March” confirmed not only the relevance, but also the necessity of the Black Lives Matter movement.  The presence of law enforcement at this march was painfully different from the presence seen at the protests beginning on May 30, 2020.  Forbes reports that 52 people were arrested after the Capitol insurrection. In comparison, 427 people who were arrested during the BLM, DC protest for (brace yourself) “unrest-related” issues. 
 
How can anyone justify this irregularity?  How is it even possible for such a number to make even an ounce of sense?  Simple, these figures prove privilege.  Specifically, they confirm white privilege. 
 
It was clear.  No debate was needed.  If the crowd was black the results would have been different, because – when it was, the results really were different.  However, (as bad as this was) this still wasn’t the proof of privilege that blew me away.  The mind-blowing evidence of white privilege came in the aftermath. 
 
After an act of terrorism and insurrection that left 5 dead in its wake (one of which was a police officer), the privilege proof was most rampant in the response of the many senior Republicans. 
 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R - SC)

​The Republican Senator from South Carolina tweeted this less than a week afterward.  “In light of President Trump’s Thursday statement pledging an orderly transfer power and calling for healing in our nation, a second impeachment will do far more harm than good.”  He went on to state that, “I’m DISAPPOINTED (caps are my edits) to hear the House is proceeding with a second impeachment given there are only nine days left in a Trump presidency.  It is past time for all of us to try to HEAL OUR COUNTRY AND MOVE FORWARD.  Impeachment would be a MAJOR STEP BACKWARD.”
 
And there it is…
 
I know it’s one Senator; however, many spoke in like sentiment.  Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri stated, “My personal view is that the president touched the hot stove on Wednesday and is unlikely to touch it again.”  To be clear, “the hot stove” was an act of terror.  The President of the United States provoked an enraged audience of thousands, fueled by his lies and antics, to attack the seat of American democracy in a terroristic fashion.  Five people died, 15 officers were hospitalized, and 50 more were injured.  Threats are currently being made on the President-Elect's lives, the Vice President-Elect, and the Democratic Speaker of the House.  Offices were desecrated, items were stolen, and explosives were later found before they could be used to harm.  And in the face of all this, the response that Sen. Graham feels is sufficient is to deny impeachment for the President and America to instead “move forward.” 
 
I’m not sure he knows what he means.  Or maybe he's so used to this that he doesn't consider the implications.  However, I’d like to explain.
 
Per Sen. Graham, the forward movement of the United States means letting the President pass without accountability.  That is, he can incite the only insurrection at the Capitol in the 21st century, and “We the People” should just let it go.  
 
Here's healing.  If you fall off your bike and scrape your knee, you don't bandage the wound before cleaning it.  You instead deal with the impurities.  Why?  You do this so that you can promote greater purity, despite the harm. 
 
Fact:  America is in a horrible state concerning race because the terroristic founding fathers thought like Sen. Graham.  They assumed that there was no need to clean the wound; in fact, they hardly bandaged it.  The Natives were displaced, the blacks went from slavery to segregation, and equality was just a phrase.  In 2021, we are still talking about race in a negative light, because no one had the courage, or even the concern, to clean the wound of slavery. 
 
At the close of slavery, if there were no privilege, people should have gone to jail, and restitution should have been provided.  Reparations should have been paid, Klansman should have been prosecuted, and then healing may have begun.  However, that was not the case.  It was not the case because there was no interest in recovery.  Real healing would demand equality, and they indeed weren't deemed equal.  So, the “less-than” had to “deal with it.” 
 
They had to deal with the rape of their wives, the selling of their daughters, their sons' beatings, and the unpaid work of their hands.  They had to watch the wealth of their masters; wealth earned by the force of their hands, and upon “freedom,” given scraps and told to “move on.”  That is privilege, specifically white privilege.  To be so bold in the name of supremacy that you minimize the feelings, experiences, traumas, and desire for others' justice.  All in the name of exalting one’s self. 

Unfortunately, Sen. Graham is operating on that same old playing field whether he knows it, shows it, or denies it.  Ask yourself, what do you think would have happened if President Obama would have incited an exact insurrection?  Or (for those), what would you have desired to happen to President Obama if he provoked the same act of terror?  Whatever your answer, to whichever question that fits you, privilege will only die when people understand that the same answer should happen exactly to President Trump, no exceptions. Sen. Graham and Senior Republicans - there can be no healing without a cleaning, and the cleaning means the problem must be dealt with first. 
 
The Cross of Jesus Christ was necessary to restore the relationship between God and man.  Sin had to be dealt with so that the bond between mankind and the Master could be fixed.  This is true in heaven; this is true on earth.  This is true in the White House, and it's right in my house.  When we deny this, we denounce reciprocity.  And when that happens, we’ve minimized the “other.” 
 
White privilege isn't to be feared, and certainly not to be debated (I mean, c'mon now…); instead, it's to be dismantled.  How do we do that?  By demanding equality. 
 
After all, privilege is only privilege when it’s available to some.  However, when privilege becomes open to all, it then becomes what I and others like to call FAIR. 

Your thoughts?  Comment below.  

Kevin D. Jones, Sr.

Author and Publisher of Perfectly Imperfect Perfectionist
(@kevindjonessr)
(@imperfection360)
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