No Accident

The police presence at Capitol Hill during peaceful #BlackLivesMatter protests.

Dear Friends,

At East Harlem Tutorial Program (EHTP), we learn that the past is prologue. That history and knowledge matter deeply. 

So what we saw unfold today at the Capitol was disturbing, but it wasn’t surprising. After all, Donald Trump has been telling us for months that he had no intention of going quietly, or going at all. He’s been telling us for years -- for decades -- that he is a lawless, racist thug. And as they say, when someone tells you who they are, believe them.

That today’s events happened on this historic day Georgia -- after Stacey Abrams and a small cadre of fierce Black women activists helped elect its first Black Senator -- is surely no accident. 

Just like it isn’t an accident that, somehow, thousands of white rioters were permitted to storm the Capitol building, rip down the American flag and hoist a Trump flag in its place.

Just like it isn’t an accident that hours into the insurrection, the National Guard was nowhere to be found -- this despite being called into action, repeatedly, at peaceful protests in support of Black Lives Matter last summer. 

Just like it isn’t an accident that the officers who shot Jacob Blake won’t face charges for their crime. 

Or the officers who killed Breonna Taylor.

Or George Floyd. 

Or that a virus that kills Black and Brown people at double the rate of whites continues to spread unchecked.

The goal of the officers in Kenosha and Louisville, the men waving their Thin Blue Line flags and sporting their MAGA hats, the talking heads on TV and the elected officials in Congress who talk about “both sides,” is one and the same. It isn’t simply to thwart the peaceful transition of power; it is to thwart Black and Brown people from participating fully in American life. 

Or participating at all. 

What must happen next in Washington is clear: For one, the President must be removed from office and prosecuted. And his enablers, too, need to be held accountable. 

In East Harlem, at EHTP, we know that our students are watching and living this and we need to support them. We are reminded more than ever to continue to center all our work in abolitionist, anti-racist teaching, learning, and care.  

Our future, and the future of the students we serve, depends on how we respond to this moment. We must reject the heavy hand of white supremacy, lest it swallow our nation whole.

In Solidarity,

Jeff Ginsburg