Rioters, looters, and terrorists attacking the White House in the name of “saving the democracy” was a lie, and it was a mockery of the thousands of American citizens that joined together during the pandemic to peacefully protest against the social injustices and racism towards Black and brown Americans.
Not only did the world see the biased treatment of white armed “thugs” who killed and attacked police, but they remembered seeing the same police attack Black peaceful protesters speaking out against the outright hate crimes targeting us.
The fact that the terrorist attack on the Capitol building was even able to occur while Black Lives Matter protesters couldn’t even protest without getting shot at is an in our face reminder that this is a war of progress vs privilege. Privilege unfortunately that has a soul tie with hate filled and racists sentiments towards Black and brown Americans.
Aisha Dukuly, EdLanta student coalition leader, spoke more on this by noting that the attack proved once again “that America, especially white America, doesn’t care about me or anyone that looks like me.”
Another EdLanta student coalition leader, Jaden Holliman, also shared his thoughts on the attacks when he spoke on a national panel about what’s going on in America sponsored by The People’s Uprising. He said, “What we are seeing in this country is an embarrassment and outright shameful act of privilege that we clearly all see is the problem.”
Jovan Manning, a middle school scholar at 7 Pillars Career Academy, represented the EdLanta student coalition at a rally to stop state testing sponsored by Good Teachers for Good Trouble.
He advocated for the State of Georgia Board of Education to not mandate statewide testing this school year as many of his peers in traditional public schools are not doing well with the digital divide in virtual learning. Jovan reflected on walking to the event and seeing dozens of state troopers lining the Capitol across for the peaceful demonstration by students and teachers.
“I will never forget walking up to the Capitol and seeing the state troopers lined up with rifles ready. I was like wow, this is real.” – Jovan Manning, 7 Pillars Career Academy Student.
Many students could identify with feeling like the government was used to allow this. It made a lot of Black and brown students feel unsafe and deflated their aspirations to continue their social justice activism.
Several high school students in the EdLanta student coalition saw the biased incitement as just another issue to pile onto everything else bad going on in the world.
In listening sessions some of EdLanta student coalition leaders led at their schools, students reflected that they felt like the attacked was planned and made America look weak. It also showed how powerful the hatred of racism is that there was no outrage from Blue Lives Supporters when police were attacked and killed.
“I also fear for my future and what it might look like because of such uneducated, ignorant, hateful people,” stated by Aisha in a group discussion. In a way, the attack made Black and brown students feel that racist people always seem to get their way in some form or another in this country.
“Black people can never get a break from racism and it’s exhausting. Makes me feel on edge and like I can’t breathe.”
America’s entanglement with racism is evident. It’s also evident that America isn’t perfect in the eyes of Americans and on the world stage. To see America become such a circus on the world stage makes me feel good because the same people love to belittle African countries and third world countries, but now America is getting a taste of its own medicine.
People are beginning to see America for what kind of country it truly is. We have politicians who uphold a system that so blatantly oppresses Black and brown people in this country. In spite of all of this, our youth are stepping up to the plate to dismantle a racist system.
Support our call to action for Georgia school districts to utilize some of the money set aside for school resource officers to go towards adding more school counselors and social emotional curriculum in public schools. They have the millions in public safety to do it; here’s a way to re-fund education!
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.