Capitol attack shows two different Americas; the only way to freedom is together.
Twenty-six gunshots. On Oct. 3, 2013, Miriam Carey, a 39-year-old Black woman, was fired upon 26 times after she hit a security barrier with her car. Miriam was one block away from the White House. After she hit the barrier, she proceeded to drive away toward the Capitol. In doing so, she triggered a chase by Capitol Police. Inside her car was her 13-month-old baby. Of the 26 gunshots fired by police, five of them penetrated her body including the fatal one to the back of her head.
To this day, it is not known whether Miriam intended to hit the barrier or if it was a simple side swipe- an accident. No one can say why she drove away. According to Miriam Carey’s family attorney there was no indication of any intoxicants in her body after her killing. The Associated Press reported Miriam may have suffered from mental illness. If her intentions were to cause harm, Miriam never reached the White House, nor did she even get close to any Capitol steps. We will never know what caused Miriam’s actions or the intention behind them because she is dead.
I have not thought about Miriam Carey in almost 8 years. However, on Jan. 6, 2021 thoughts of her returned. On that day I received a text message that said, “Get to a TV. Insurrection in DC!” Before I did, I called my best friend who lives in Washington, DC. “Brent, are you ok?” I spoke. He said, “You won’t believe it, LeTonia. They are trying to take over the Capitol!” Like millions of other people in the US and abroad, I turned on my television to see an angry mob of almost entirely white men and women donned in red hats and some draped in flags with the name “Trump” on them. I saw them scaling the walls of the U.S. Capitol building. I saw them rushing up the stairways and breaking windows to get inside it. I even saw them walking around the Rotunda as if they were on tour. They took pictures and videos as they defaced federal property with glee. I heard them say they were there to take their country back as they also shouted, “This is our house!” They flew the Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol walls.
In the midst of all I saw, it dawned on me what I did not see. Where were the police? Was it not just in June of 2020 that I saw the military side by side lining the US Capitol steps to guard against Black Lives Matter protesters who expressed no intent to take over the U.S.government? Was it not the Kentucky National Guard and the Louisville Metro Police Department that went into a neighborhood and shot and killed David McAtee who wasn’t even protesting Breonna Taylor’s murder at the time he was killed?
I remember Donald Trump’s tweet “…when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” I remember the tear gas sprayed on protesters who were simply standing by as a way was cleared for Donald Trump to take a photo in Lafayette Square holding a bible. Yet, on Jan. 6, 2021 there were images of white people attempting to overthrow the US government and they were met with little to no police resistance. After resistance did arrive, many of the insurgents were sent on their way, cheering and giving one another high fives. They simply walked out of the building they had destroyed and the democracy they attacked, proud of themselves. Five people including a Capitol Police officer died and it was allowed to happen.
Today I offer to those who doubt that Blacks and white people live in two different Americas the storm on the U.S. Capitol as evidence and example. On social media and in the news, there has been much discourse about the “double standard” in the way Black Lives Matter protesters were treated and abused and the way white domestic terrorists were treated and for the most part allowed to go home. I would offer that what you have witnessed is not a “double standard” but instead a perfect example of the reality of white privilege and what it offers, no matter education or socioeconomic status. Our nation was built upon a foundation of white supremacy and has been upheld through violence, destruction, and institutions entrenched in its philosophy.
My hope in spite of the pain and terror of what we have collectively witnessed is that white people will dig even deeper than some of you did in 2020 and recognize that we are all at peril in the sea of racism and white supremacy. We are bound together through our history and in our present. The only way to freedom is together with our eyes wide open.
Western Kentucky native LeTonia Jones is a social justice entrepreneur and writer in search of deeper truths about love and what is required to live fully human and be at peace.