On the afternoon of January 6, 2021, multitudes of Trump supporters breached security at the U.S. Capitol in response to conspiracy theories spewed by President Donald Trump about a rigged electoral process. Their actions not only postponed the official declaration of Joe Biden as the next president, but resulted in deaths, several arrests, and the lockdown of the nation’s capital.
The students of the Sankofa Homeschool Collective/AllEyesOnDC’s grassroots journalism course had much to say about the events that unfolded. Below are their recollections of that Wednesday afternoon, and their assessment of what the insurrection means for people of African descent living in American society.
Amora Majors
The election results have left Donald Trump and his supporters stunned and hostile. They feel as if the election was “stolen” from them. On January 6th around 3 pm, things started to heat up. There were broken windows, bombs , four guns found and four shot and killed, several arrests made. Trump supporters call it a protest, while others like me call it terrorism due to their terrible behavior. Everyone was ordered to be in the house by 6 pm.
It’s all about money! When the white people don’t get what they want, they go mentally crazy. Now leading back to Black Lives Matter. Many people were standing up for what they believed in and getting killed for it. If there was so much security, how did Trump supporters get in, you may ask.I Would like to know too.
Every day, it’s another episode of “Donald’s mess.”
Amira J. Majors
President-elect Joe Biden’s victory led to a Trump mob that broke into the U.S. Capitol building for what turned into a well-intentioned coup. Later on, D.C Mayor Muriel E. Bowser issued a 6.pm curfew and then all the chaos began to come to an end. Residents questioned why there wasn’t as much action as there was at other protests.
Law enforcement officers inside the building instructed elected officials, staff and journalists to shelter in place as the protesters broke in. The entire District of Columbia National Guard was activated and the Metropolitan Police Department was deployed to assist the U.S. Capitol Police in dispersing the protesters and restoring order. Several other law enforcement in the region were also deployed to help.
Jabari Smith
With the events that happened this week, I was kind of disappointed.
I was disappointed because no action was taken when Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol. It showed the privilege that white people have over Blacks. While on Instagram, you could see Trump supporters trying to compare Black Lives Matter protests to what happened this week. In reality, Black Lives Matter was fighting for the Black people being killed, but the Trump supporters were fighting over a loss.
I’m kind of happy about what happened because it will now show how broken the police system is toward Black and white people. For the Trump supporters to be able to get to the front door of the U.S. Capitol and break windows is sad. Not many arrests were made. I feel as though the police and the Trump supporters were working together because if it were Black people, at least 200 arrests would have been made along with dead bodies.
Quinton P. Burns
“Look at what the Trump supporters are doing,” my mother exclaimed.
I asked her, “Where are the police? Why aren’t they stopping them?”
She switched on the radio and we heard the newscaster say that if this were any other ethnic group, the consequences for this would be far more severe. “How come they used tear gas on the Black Lives Matter protesters and not the people who are breaking and entering?”
I had no idea what was happening. “The president refuses to call his goons off… They have gotten into the west wing…. There is a man in Ms. Pelosi’s office with his feet up.”
That one confused me the most. Why is that man in her office and how did he get there?
As we were driving to Barry Farms to try and get home, my father saw men in uniform getting into a helicopter.
“Look!” He shouted “It’s the National Guard!” My head was spinning. I was so confused. There were people shouting left and right, and glass breaking. “The Republican officials have put their gas masks on…. A man has been shot.”
“BRUH WHY HAS NOTHING HAPPENED WHY ARE THEY STILL BREAKING IN WHERE ARE THE POLICE??? ”
Malachi Wilson
It made me sad to think that the mob’s actions and what they’re doing is representing our country in a terrible way. The way they treated this angry mob of protesters versus how they treat peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters just flat-out saddens me.
To add fuel to the fire, President Trump was supporting and encouraging them to riot and break into the U.S. Capitol and that is also the person who is representing our nation and is saying that this is ok. We witnessed the National Guard, and officers from Maryland and Virginia struggle to fight through them. A woman lost her life due to this wild altercation and people vandalising the Capitol and offices which makes this one of the worst events in American history.
This proves that America hasn’t learned from slavery and especially Jim Crow which was a trying time for a lot of African Americans. It feels that we as a people are reliving the wrong things. To sum this event up, I think that this is a critical period in our country. That is how I feel about this whole fiasco.
Crest Macauley
I personally haven’t really had time to think it over that much, but from what I know, I’m very disappointed. It makes me sad when I think about how some people in America still cannot get along. It has been made clear that we all are made equal, but some people just won’t accept that. It isn’t fair that we have to live in a judgmental society. The disrespect is really a pain. The deaths in the past year have mostly been unreasonable. If people would grow up at least a little, I think this country would be at least 10 percent better. Even though that may be a small percent, it is still better than it is right now.
Bailey H. Mines
People may say Trump is a maniac for supporting his army of followers during the protests that turned violent. If you take a look around the U.S. Capitol, you would see people yelling at others, angry protesters with weapons challenging law officials, and others scaling the Capitol walls and breaking windows.
At a point in time, the angry mob entered the building, all while the debates were taking place. The House representatives and senators fled for cover as Trump’s supporters stormed inside and violently entered the Senate chamber and sat in the very seat Vice President Pence was sitting in. Shots were fired striking 35-year-old Ashli E. Babbitt who participated in the pro-Trump rally. She later died at the hospital due to her wounds.
What I don’t understand is that our country’s leader President Donald J. Trump simply tweeted his support for his barbaric supporters. This is the same man who swore on Inauguration Day four years ago “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States.”
Do you want the children of today to see this country as this wasteland that supports violence? This is not the right example being set. What I have seen goes against the entire oath of office. I believe that Trump just was not ready for this kind of responsibility because he is not able to keep his supporters in check When January 20th comes, we will be released from this horrible time loop and into a new perspective. All of the violence that was allowed under Trump will come to an end.
A new leader for this country that supports Black Lives Matter and women’s rights, and doesn’t condemn “illegal Immigrants” will most definitely make America great again!
Wenona Majette
Earlier this week a group of Trump supporters numbering in the hundreds broke into the U.S Capitol.
Not only did they destroy federal property, but they vandalized multiple officials’ offices. It is disturbing to see that no police or security attempted to stop the mob until three hours after they entered the Capitol. I also saw footage of a Capitol police leading the mob through barricades and allowing them to go up to the Capitol.
It is not fair that law enforcement uses exaggerated, unnecessary force against peaceful Black Lives Matter protests but allow this violent mob to overtly break into the Capitol with no restrictions. While there were several charges for the crazy, weird MAGA people, and a few arrests, I still think there is a big difference between the Black Lives Matter protests and this Trump one.
I know for sure that investigators saw hints of this event coming through social media but they ignored it. President Trump started it all in his tweet saying something like “Go wild!” to his supporters. This event has even caused nine members of the Trump administration to resign because they don’t want to have anything to do with this tragic event.
I personally feel that Trump supporters, and even Trump himself, have temper tantrums when they don’t get their way — just like babies and toddlers. Joe Biden, our new president, will be in office in a few days. We should have a clean slate to work on to improve our country. Hopefully, we will have more equality in America and have an end to this pandemic. Until then, we can continue to express ourselves to the world as Black people and keep pushing for equality.
Also, in the meantime, we can ignore those everlasting Trump supporters and racist people, and let them have their temper tantrums in jail if they continue to destroy federal property. We need things to change, and change will only come when we make it.
Bismarck Macauley, III
As a result of prejudice, many protests led or ignited by people of African descent, have been over-assigned security, from the peaceful protests of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-who explicitly marketed his protests as peaceful, to the Black Lives Matter marches of today.
However, this was one instance when there was under-assigned security, which resulted in the currently accounted for loss of five lives. There has been speculation that this was staged, which would explain the lack of security. A simpler assessment would be that there seemed to be no need. Surely, seeing as this was not an event organized by the “inferior” and “savage” African Americans, there was no need. Oversight is a slight wrong, until it costs people their lives, loved ones, or other personal attachments which are so boldly paraded as more so protected in America than the other “inferior” places the world has to offer.
America has its problems, as do all other countries. The mask of perfection shown to all until most recently has protected it from major reform, until most recently when the world began to see what America really stood for: a sexist, racist, white supremacist president; the accidental but preventable deaths of innocent bystanders on account of poor decision making; constant civil unrest due to near irreparable race relations.
This causes me to ask the question: “What is America really?”
The Watoto Speak! 