“One year ago today, far-right extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in a violent attempt to overturn the results of the election and "take back America" for a racist agenda.
While we condemn the violence & violent ideologies that led to the attack on our Capitol, we also denounce attempts to exploit Jan. 6th as a means to justify increased government surveillance that has predominantly harmed Muslim communities & people of color since its inception.
The U.S. has a lot of work to do to confront the violent, white supremacist ideologies that fuel the abuse of people of color in the U.S. and drive U.S. crimes across the globe.” In more detail, CODEPINK’s statement on the White Supremacist Attack on the Capitol is found here.
Today I attended a vigil led by Public Citizen, to call out fascism in all its forms but to also highlight that the attack was also one on the people and communities who live in DC. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke to a crowd of those on the mall, calling for institutional accountability AND DC statehood.
80 of the insurrectionists, that we know of, were in the U.S. military. But beyond who was there that day, it’s the systemic forces and institutions that uphold white supremacy that must be dismantled for true accountability to be had. The U.S. military itself is a white supremacist institution, rooting out “radical extremism” in the military is an oxymoron.
