by A. Peter Bailey
(TriceEdneyWire.com)—As a person who had the knowledge-expanding, conscious-raising experiences of meeting, listening to and learning from great warriors in the war against White supremacy including Lerone Bennett Jr., Harold Cruse, John Henrik Clarke, Wyatt Tee Walker, Ron Walters, Hoyt Fuller, Fannie Lou Hamer, C. DeLores Tucker, Francis Cress Welsing, Charles Sanders, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and especially Bro. Malcolm X, I was not surprised or shocked after watching the first four hours of the Senate campaign to convict Donald Trump of causing the insurrection attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In books, articles and speeches, they had taught those of us willing to listen about the true history of the United States. Anyone who paid attention to what they were saying and writing would be well aware of what many, if not most, White people in this country will do to maintain their dominant position. Their use of terrorism is well documented by Black warriors listed above and others.
What was also not surprising or shocking was the way the American press covered the people responsible for the insurrectionist attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Day after day, on television and radio and in newspapers and magazines, they and their guests from the political and academic arenas describe Trump and his Trumpettes as being “crazy,” insane or kooks. By doing so they provided an excuse for what the insurrectionists were doing because a crazy or insane person, by law, is not responsible for his or her actions. In fact, I have heard that some of the insurrectionists are claiming “temporary insanity” around their actions on the Capitol. In reality, the attackers knew exactly what they were doing.
Another contribution to them made by the press and their guests is to describe the attackers as “White nationalists” when in fact, most all of them are first-class White supremacists. A nationalist strives for his or her race, or ethnic group to be treated equally by the society in which they live; a White supremacist believes that his or her race or ethnic group is inherently superior to everyone else and has some kind of divine right to be the dominant force in national and international affairs. That’s why they are White supremacists, not White nationalists.
Finally, much, if not most, of the press and their guests too often described the insurrectionists as though they were uneducated, low-income rednecks or hillbillies. All one had to do was watch those first four hours and listen to and read the insurrectionists’ statements to know there was a whole lot of college-educated, professionals included among the attackers. Trumpettes such as Senators Josh Haley, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Rick Scott have degrees from some of the most heralded universities in this country. Those journalists on Fox News who equated the looting and arson of stores by rioters in Portland, Oregon with those who were shouting “Hang Mike Pence” in the Capitol, are not rednecks or hillbillies. They are the direct descendants of those who had the delusionary belief that people such as themselves are divinely superior to everyone else, especially people of African descent. The real deal is that Trump and his Trumpettes, more than anyone else, lack a basic humanity.
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