FFT: Storming The Capitol–Insurrection vs Terrorism

Food for thought (FFT): I learned a new word after domestic terrorists staged a coup on the Capitol–insurrection. I thought it was a biblical word, but it means an uprising against the government. The media settled on using that euphemistic term to describe the terror unleashed on Capitol Hill by Trump and his enablers on January 6, 2021.

I have a problem with the term. It is confusing, and it separates terrorism committed by white men and women from terrorism committed by Muslims and people of color. It gives the appearance that these terrorists had some moral grievance with the government, unlike terrorists from non-white groups.
Not using the term terrorism downgrades the crime to one that could be justified and go unpunished.

I see the use of the term as another instance of structural racism where crimes committed by white men and women are not taken as seriously. Even after the acts of violence and five dead, you hear people wanting unity with the terrorists. Fox, Newsmax, and conservative media support the terrorists. They want to shift blame to a group that exists in name only for conservative groups to scapegoat their criminal activities.

There are now polls conducted to see if storming the Capitol and leaving five people dead is a crime or a threat to democracy. How can America regain global trust or credibility among its diverse citizenry when so many embrace and justify domestic terrorism?

 

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Author: Angela Grant

Angela Grant is a medical doctor. For 22 years, she practiced emergency medicine and internal medicine. She studied for one year at Harvard T. H Chan School Of Public Health. She writes about culture, race, and health.

10 thoughts on “FFT: Storming The Capitol–Insurrection vs Terrorism

  1. I’ve been following this story and it’s just mind-blowing with the double standards. If that mob were Black or Arab, there would’ve been more arrests made as well as way more dead bodies on the ground as they wouldn’t have been able to get to the steps of the White House much less capital hill. I saw the videos of police actually letting them in like it was a big tour group or taking selfies with them. Some people were trying to make Ashli Babbitt a martyr even when the video came out where you can clearly see them try to break the doors inside as well as shouting “F*** the blue!”. Those same people who chanted that were the same ones cheerleading the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, etc. Double standards, much?

    1. I have no sympathy for Ashli Babbitt. She was terrorist who got what she deserved. I hope she gets more in hell if there one. It’s time to stop praying for our enemies and wish them all the pain they subjected us to.
      Curtis, I saw even left wing media try to drum up sympathy for a terrorist. The hypocrisy and double standard are painful for me to watch.

      1. I didn’t have any sympathy for her either, so I should’ve made that clear. She and all of those people who stormed the capitol need to be arrested. Yeah, I saw some stuff from the left that painted her in a more sympathetic light. It was sickening that she and all those other terrorists were treated better than Black people who would never even try what they just did. Shoot, they still haven’t arrested everyone yet. I also thought about the other implications of those pretending to storm some modern-day Bastille. Most of those people didn’t have masks on, so I bet there’s going to be a COVID surge in the DC area much less in the states where they all came from like what went down at the motorcycle rally in South Dakota last Summer.

          1. True that. I heard about the news involving the torture and murder plots they tried. “Hang Pence” even trended when it was confirmed that these terrorists said it during their siege of the Capitol. Even I was surprised about them going after Pence which hows how their targets were bipartisan. This is just mind-numbing as more and more craziness is being revealed. Now, I’m hearing that some of these sympathizers of Y’all Qaeda/Vanilla ISIS/Yokel Haram (or whatever you want to call them) are making false equivalencies with the Black Panther Party. Big difference! They were at the State Capitol in Sacramento to protest against police brutality and didn’t do anything harmful to anyone. These thugs went to the White House, armed to the teeth with all kinds of weapons, looted different things, broke several windows and doors, threatened politicians, and now I’m hearing that some of them spread feces on the building! Nasty!

            1. Disgusting! Curtis, when I look at the images of them scaling the Capital walls, they look professional. Look how some of them hung off the wall.

            2. Very much so. Yeah, they looked like they’ve done this stuff before with the climbing equipment and everything. I’m finding out even more things which make this worse like some people wearing neo-nazi slogans like “Camp Auschwitz” and “6WME” which stands for “6 Million Weren’t Enough”. I was sickened seeing that in the photos and that should also make anyone with a sliver of rationality chastise them even more. This video has also been cathartic to watch after finding out about this insanity with this guy calling out those terrorists. Major props to him destroying the “They should just comply” excuse whenever a Black person is attacked or killed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HThvaT9WsA

            3. White supremacist domestic terrorists debated replacing the US flag with a trump flag. The had a detailed layout of the Capitol. That should alarm everyone in Congress. What if Wednesday was a threat of their capabilities?

            4. Yeah, there’s certainly plausibility that this won’t be the last time happening which is a shame. It wouldn’t be surprising if they tried to replace the American flag with a Trump flag. Looks like some of the biggest traitors to America are the ones who wear the stars and stripes as they claim to be patriots.

              Yeah, that guy in the video was so righteously angry and was on point.

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