The Day America Went Mask-less

Hello soapbox… it’s been a while old friend…

Happy New Year everyone! White folks, welcome to the year 2021. Took you long enough to get here… but better late than ever right? I’ve been here… for most of my life actually. And I won’t speak for all black folks but I’m certain that I am not the only one. We been living in 2021 for quite some time now. While January 6, 2021 may have been your first real American experience, this is just the same shit, different year for black folks. So again I say… welcome!

Ever since I was a hard-headed adolescent with parents who loved to lecture me when I messed up and even up until now as a grown married ass man with a son, I rarely get to say this. So forgive me if I appear excited when I say I TOLD YOU SO. In the words of the late great former NFL head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they were! And we let them off the hook!” Black folks knew that racism, white extremists, and white supremacists were a huge problem in this country. But white folks have let them off the hook for decades. Y’all chose to live in your alternate reality because it didn’t really effect you…. until a few days ago.

This is America. The real America. But yall denied it for centuries. With every single tragedy or embarrassing moment in this country, we love to shout from the mountain tops, with real tears in our eyes, that we are better than what the world just saw. We are better than mass school shootings. We are better than unarmed police murders. We are better than racism. But there comes a time when you have to ask… who you trying to convince? The world or yourself?

How many chances should black folks give this country? Well, how many times do you forgive your partner for betraying your trust? At some point, its who they are, right? After years of the same shit, when your partner comes back to you apologizing, saying they’ve changed and that they are better than what they continuously do to you, why would you forgive them? You wouldn’t forgive them. Because they aren’t better. And neither is this country. This is who we are. Own it. Bask in it. Accept it. And never forget it.

Black folks have known this for decades. We have been warning yall that racism and white supremacy is alive and well in this place. But like my grandmother used to say, those who do not hear must feel. Now that this country’s true ugly personality has come out on the biggest stage for the entire world to see, there is a sense of shame and embarrassment among white folks. You can’t spin this one. There is nothing you can do but own it. But my door is open. So come on in and have a seat. Don’t touch nothing. Don’t say nothing. Just listen… I mean really listen to black folks this time. Because you have been faking it for too long. The real America finally took off it’s mask and revealed its true face.

For those who have been living under rocks or with their heads buried in the sand, I’ll bring you up to speed. On January 6, 2021, white folks engaged in yet another domestic terror attack. They showed out in full force displaying their white – not even privilege but – supremacy as they broke into the United States Capitol in Washington, DC to overthrow the government and “take back their county.” The attempted coup d’état was on full display as the mostly white mob looted, damaged and terrorized the capitol and the staff and police on duty. This occurred as Congress was in the process of affirming President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris’s Electoral College victory over President Trump. For hours, the mob continued to trespass on federal property as they chanted unamerican, racist and terroristic rhetoric and discount the 75,000,000+ votes for new incoming administration. Because of Trump’s ignorant lies and incendiary rhetoric that the election was stolen from him by the radical left, socialists and democrats and encouraging his supporters to march down to the capitol and fight, the mob of domestic terrorists desecrated one of the oldest symbols of American democracy itself – which had not been breach since the British stormed it back in 1814. But this time, there were plenty of American flags, trump flags, “don’t tread on me” flags, and of course, confederate flags displayed as the mob breached the capitol. The attack caused numerous deaths including one police officer with others injured.

As most white folks were glued to their TVs, clutching their pearls, horrified and embarrassed at what they saw on the news, I was thoroughly entertained. After most of the damage was done, I watch the poor (not sympathy poor… I mean broke ass poor) white terrorists begin to retreat from the Capitol with tear gas in their eyes and a few bumps and bruises on their bodies. I laughed to my core as they appeared confused and baffled at how police could mistreat them “this way”… oh my god, I was thoroughly entertained. Even afterwards, as white folks praised republican leaders and trump cabinet members for finally doing the easy and obvious thing of stepping down and speaking truth against Trump with only 13 days left before Biden’s inauguration, I rolled my eyes, but was still thoroughly entertained.

Nothing that happened on January 6th was surprising to me at all. It was just the best reality TV I have ever seen. White folks always act out when they are treated like bla – I mean, when they don’t get their way. So I wasn’t fixated on what they were doing. They are doing what ignorant and insecure white folks do. I was focused more so on what was not happening. And I must say, I was disappointed.

Now… we spend a million billion trillion US dollars on federal defense and police weaponry. That money comes right out of my pocket every paycheck. So where in the entire f*ck are those military tanks that I paid for?! Where the hell are those military helicopters with enough ammo to take out an entire city without reloading? Where was the national guard? Specifically, where were the hundreds of military dudes in camouflage who were standing at the Lincoln Memorial in June of last year during a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest? I was looking for the military to show up and show out and f*ck them people up – like they do us – for the first time ever. I just knew that once 6:00 PM came around and that curfew kicked in, they were gonna rain fire from the skies and fire the canons of justice at every single looter and rioter out there.

But then at 6:05 PM when the skies remained clear and the rioters raged on, my heart calmed down as my mind tapped it on the shoulder. These are white folks bro. They are never a threat to law enforcement. These folks believe they own not just the entire police force, but everything in this country. The reason they were able to walk up into the US Capitol while Congress was in session and blatantly takeover the building by force is because they are not scared of the police and the police are not scared of them. They knew there would be no consequences... even while committing treason. And let’s be real, the police do not take threats from white folks seriously… no matter how much credibility they have or how blatantly they are stated on social media. In fact, the Capitol police on-duty at the time seemed as if they were on the terrorists’ side. And chances are, there were several off-duty law enforcement officers the crowd side by side with the white supremacists and terrorists. Never forget, several police departments and unions across the country have openly endorsed Trump and therefore, his ideologies. So I fully believe that angry mob had plenty of police officers in them. But that’s another conversation about the police… yall not ready for that yet. Let’s just stick to the “civilians” in that mob.

I watched as the police opened the gates to the capitol to let in the terrorists. I watched as they took pictures with the terrorists. I watched as the police held the terrorists hands as they helped them down the steps after they were finished committing their acts of treasonous insurgency. I also watched as some of the more violent terrorists got tear gassed. And watched them cry precious white tears because they were so upset that the police, their allies, would do that to them as they fight for “freedom.” I watched as the mob called some of the police traitors for trying to protect the building. After all, this is the same mob that loves chanting blue lives matter in response to black lives matter protests. But blue lives didn’t matter at that point. And some of those blue lives fought back and beat their asses. Talk about poetic.

I also watched how the crowd of murderous whites confronted a lone black police officer in the hallway of the Capitol. As he tried to maintain his post, the mob continued moving towards him violently. This brother was armed with a gun but was somehow – just SOMEHOW – he was able to remain restrained enough to keep his gun holstered as he backed-up several flight of stairs fearing for his life. Not a single shot was fired. Seriously? I found myself asking why the hell do we ALWAYS have to show how much better we are than white folks? No officer has ever been faced with such a mob of terrorists and not taken out his gun. Just imagine if that mob had been black folks approaching a white officer. Even if we were able to make it that far into the building, that gun would have been empty in seconds. Somehow, white folks cannot restrain themselves to NOT shoot us during a simple car stop; yet, when the scenario is flipped and we are met with the most stressful and unprecedented violent circumstances, we still are somehow able to not shoot anyone. They don’t deserve us… at all.

But I digress. Clearly, this country still does not believe that white folks pose the biggest threat to democracy. When they are unhappy and insecure, they shoot up, blow up and f*ck up everything and anything in an emotional rage such as movie theaters, schools, marathons, government buildings, churches and especially, black folks. Then when you try to take their toys (ie, guns) because they don’t know how to act, they cry as if they are the victim. I swear the only law they know is the 2nd amendment. Then, when they arrest these white terrorists, they say stuff like “he had a rough upbringing” or “he has mental health issues.” No... yall are just fragile and used to having your way and when you don’t, you act like petulant children. January 6th is just another example of that. They have proven that they will even commit treason, terrorism and kill police officers just to get what they want.

Oh by the way, they never really gave a damn about “blue lives.” It was all smoke and mirrors and just another racist way to oppress black folks using “their” police force that they believe they own. What do they tell us whenever a black person is shot by the police. Just comply, right? Remember that? If you just do what you’re told, you won’t get killed. Comply or die, right? Man, please. White folks blame everyone else for the violence happening in this country except themselves. That shit wasn’t protesting, that was a full-on white temper tantrum. And it was clearly foreseeable. They left a mile long paper trail as they talked about their intentions on social media and on thousands of hateful racists websites and groups weeks before January 6th.

Yet there was no national guard deployed. No barricades or walls constructed. They didn’t believe that white folks could act this way. They couldn’t believe that white supremacists really were a threat to the country – hell, they don’t even believe in white privilege. They could not fathom that the confederacy was still alive and well and angry as all hell. Either that or law enforcement simply believe in these terroristic causes enough to not want to stop the terror attack.

Whether liberal or conservative, white folks are coddled their entire life. This country has always allowed white folks to express themselves in whatever manner they want with little to no consequence. They f*ck up cities after Super Bowl wins and burn shit down after their candidate losses an election. They are so emotionally fragile whenever they don’t get their way and society enables them by letting them vent their feelings and “protest” however they want.

But let a tired black woman sit peacefully in the front of the bus to protest racism. Let two black men raise a fist during the national anthem at the Olympics in protest to inequality. Let a black man take a knee during the national anthem at a football game. Let a black man walk peacefully in the street with his daughter on his shoulders to protest unjust killings of unarmed black men by the police. We are met with full rage of these same fragile white folks and the fullest force of the militarized police force. They spare no expense monitoring our social media and websites to prepare days in advance for our protests. They are never EVER unprepared or caught off-guard or outnumbered. They make sure they are fully staffed, fully armed and fully protected with riot gear, tanks and drones. They would never take the chance to let 2 or more black folks gather together to protest unsupervised. Cuz we are the animals and criminals. We are the ones who are violent. Although we built it, we are the ones who hate this country and are the biggest threat to democracy. Yeah ok…

But hey… it be ya own people right? It was your own people charging the Capitol and committing treason. That’s what it took for white folks to now see what we been saying all along. Yall have been lied to. This country is not great… it never was. Racism is not dead, nor is the confederacy. There is a white rage that has gone unchecked and ignored in this country for decades and no one believes us when we call it out. You will call it anything – tradition, patriotism, etc. – before admitting that this country is a hot white racist ignorant mess. And none of this is going to change until America confronts it on every single level. The civil war is still being fought and the confederacy is alive and well and not going anywhere. What are we going to do about it?

I know what we should do. But yall not ready for that. So I’ll just tell you what you will do. You will go on social media for a few days and condemn what you saw. You will take the easy route and put it all on one little man’s shoulders: Trump. You will get a lot of praise for that. Wow… bold move. Good for you. Then you will go about your lives come February now that Trump is out of office believing that all the hundreds of thousands of cult members pushing white supremacy and rage will also run back into their shitholes. Eventually, this entire moment of insurrection will be permanently swept under the rug of history and reduced to one or two pages in history books to join other embarrassing moments such as… oh I don’t know… slavery. And then just like you do after every school shooting or terror attack, you’ll pray that something like January 6, 2021 never happens again because…. this is America. And we are better than this...

Thanks soapbox. Until next time…