First coup? Take the Day Off!
After the presidential debate, and even before Trump took office four years ago, yesterday was bound to happen. Historians, journalists, analysts, organizers, every day folks and even politicians themselves have been predicting that violence would erupt as we get closer to January 20th.
In the days and weeks before the storming of the Capitol, leftist monitoring conservative groups and threads across social media platforms began reported that widespread violence was to be expected from January 6th til the 20th and beyond, they are calling this time “The (incoming) Darkness.” Journalists across the nation who gained this information (I mean we put it in meme format for easy dissemination) have also began reporting on the incoming threat to storm the US Capitol as early as December. For a nation that monitors its citizenry so blatantly, law enforcement agencies sure looked the other way and protected white terrorists through the planning, execution — there is plenty of footage of police opening gates, taking selfies and overall being polite and amicable with the rioters yesterday, in complete contrast with the way the DC Uprising and BLM groups have been assaulted all summer long, or the way Miriam Carey was murdered by law enforcement for accidentally hitting a rail in the Capitol after taking a wrong turn in 2013. Even now, mask-less and looting on camera (some of these white supremacists have given their names to reporters!) little less than 70 arrests have been made during a terrorist attack on the US Capitol. In 2007 100 Vets and their allies were arrested for peacefully protesting and approaching Capitol grounds. This is all happening in the same county where Breonna Taylor can be murdered by police in her own house because the police “had the wrong address” (and the state-sanctioned propensity to kill Black People with impunity) and the People calling for Justice for her and so many others can be violated by the authorities for months, on camera (and then, to add insult to injury, be compared to this terrorist attack) yet Anthony Warner, the Nashville bomber was given the benefit of the doubt when his ex-girlfriend reported to the police that he was working on building bombs a year prior to his terrorist attack on Christmas.
After the presidential debate, people wondered out-loud what in the world did Trump mean when he told the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand down’ now we know stand down from what. He promised that the 6th would be remembered and his people delivered. The same very nice people that stormed Charlottesville in A-12 and the Capitol of Richmond, Virginia this past January. These are people that have been preparing for years, even centuries to ‘reclaim’ what they think is theirs. Even with the differences in class and socioeconomic, Trump speaks the common language of white supremacy unto these people and does it well. With a Nazi sympathizing father and a career that has been openly white supremacist in nature, you could say Trump was built for this. He spent a lifetime fucking up business deals like the mediocre piece of shit he is and still managed in becoming an insidious celebrity household name, a capitalist buffoon so laughable that the liberal among us saw him as a laughing stock and not a threat, even when he began openly attacking Obama pre-presidency with his birther conspiracies. Indeed conspiracies is truly the name of his game and what gets his ‘wins.’
I remember four years ago, when Trump was elected. I told everyone we were descending onto full-blown, in your face fascism. I was labeled a reactionary. At the time I was running my small southern town’s first LGBTQ safe space. I closed that endeavor after two years of relentless, mounting white violence in the form of a bike-less biker gang confrontations which had me pull out swords, the sons of the confederacy making our parking lot a picket spot and surveillance from the Fredericksburg Police department as they tried to charge me as a public nuisance for calling out racism and homophobia/transphobia. I believe that the boldness in which mediocre white supremacy tried to suppress one tiny BIPOC run art and organizing space is because Trump won. In fact, ‘putting me in my place’ was at the forefront of their concerns and my legal status used as a threat against me time and time again. After Trump won, by the time I closed Art Mart, the conservative racists had shouted all the quiet parts for three years and the liberal racists either thought what we experienced was ‘funny’ or deserved.
The experiences I had during this time I carry with me and have much to do with why I am one of the top experts in immigrant justice and one of the most kick ass organizers in the States at this point in my life.
I also carry the experiences of my parents and grandparents, whom resisted the US backed coup that lasted twelve years in Uruguay. I was raised to read red flags as much as theory and by the time I was eight, I had already held audience with two presidents (and one would be president, then mayor of my city) bringing forth issues of power, poverty, accessibility and gentrification. You could say I was built for this and you’d be one hundredth percent correct. When I say I am my Ancestors wildest dreams I speak of the Charrua Warriors, the Freedom Fighters in the 33 Orientales, of the Tupamaros, urban guerilleros and Communist ideologues.
Here is the thing. The racists aren’t done. The reason why liberals are so shocked about yesterday’s events is because they fully expected the fash to quietly wither back into a ball for the next four years because that’s what they been doing.
The fascists got to taste what they been thirsting for so long, unbridled, unabashed displays of power violence. They got to smirk on the faces of our Indigenous Elders, they got to satiate their thirst for blood by vicariously living through videos of other white supremacists in and out of uniform killing Black and Brown people and their allies. You really think they are going to let this go now? When they are being invited and embolden by their godhead figure?
If you thought your job organizing is over because Biden won you are delusional, the violences you’ve witnessed are only a taste of what you can expect from an army of yes, larping buffoons, larping buffoons with guns, supremacists ideologies and military or para military training. Beyond that, these are larping buffoons that live next door to you, they sell you insurance, fix your car and brew your beers. Some of them preach at churches, teach your children and nurse your sick in the hospital. I won’t even go into how many of those are officers in the military, law enforcement or correctional.
Those people are going home somewhere: Your neighborhoods and hometowns.
If anything can be learned from all this is that *THIS* is what happens when you give Nazis platforms and freedom of speech and a place in society.
If there is one change you can make today is to work on de-platforming these nazis. Not just from social media but from every day life. If you find yourself staring at a video of the storm, and recognizing a face, it is your duty to be sure to warn your people. If these white supremacists are business owners, it is your job to boycott that place and tell your friends, you can go beyond that and campaign for the closing of said establishment through a routine of online trolling reviews and pages and in real life actions. If the white supremacists have employers, then HR is your best friend, Karen the shit out of this, speak to the manager/director/principal whatever have you, make sure they know their employee is a racist and that the community expects better (for them to be fired.) If said employer chooses to keep a Nazi than heed the community’s request for safety, that makes them sympathizers. People deserve to know where their money goes. And Nazis don’t deserve jobs, money and interactions with the rest of society.
No matter who is president we still live in a system of white supremacy in collapsing late stage capitalist colony. That continues to be the target for us, that continue to make us the target. Amidst a pandemic we mourn our dead and continue to fight like hell for the living, we all must continue our focus on mutual aid, making our communities stronger, engage in learning new things and passing on knowledge. Work with organizations and groups that truly walk the talk ( I recommend the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival) and get yourself a cadre to organize with!
Reverend Doctor Leonina Arismendi Zarkovic is Tri-Chair of the Virginia’s Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and Co-Director of Santos en Virginia, they are an award winning writer, poet and artist from Uruguay living in the US South. (www.leoninaarismendi.com)
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Consider donating $1 to ‘set the captives free’ through Santos en Virginia, the first state-wide immigrant defense and bail fund (www.thesantos.org)
