Quote of the Day

On Wednesday, everyone was suddenly astonished, as if they had no idea that white people did this all the time. As if there was no Charlottesville. As if the “White Lives Matter” march never happened. As if there was no such thing as a “Proud Boy.” As if the president hadn’t been telegraphing this for four years. . . . The ones stunned by this shocking turn of events are the same ones who just learned that police shoot unarmed Black people when videos started popping up in their Facebook feed. They also recently discovered school underfunding, the wealth gap, voter suppression and the war on drugs. . . . Ever since Donald Trump raised his right hand to the sky and took his oath of office, Black people everywhere have been howling a futile warning at disinterested white earholes. . . . When we said this is how it would end, we weren’t making a prediction. . . . We told y’all.

– Michael Harriot
Excerpted from “For Black People,
Wednesday Was Just Another Day in America”
The Root
January 7, 2021

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
No One Has a Right to Be Surprised About the Capitol Violence – Michael Sean Winters (National Catholic Reporter, January 7, 2021).
Use of Force: Capitol vs. Standing Rock – Dalton Walker (Indian Country Today, January 6, 2021).
Some Among America's Military Allies Believe Trump Deliberately Attempted a Coup and May Have Had Help From Federal Law-Enforcement Officials – Mitch Prothero (Business Insider, January 7, 2021).
In America, Leftist Protesters Get Violently Beaten and Arrested. Right-Wing Protesters Get to Take the Capitol – Branko Marcetic (Jacobin, January 7, 2021).
Equating White Nationalists and “Left Radicals” Is What Got Us Here in the First Place – Sarah Lazare (In These Times, January 7, 2021).
Trump’s New Officials at Pentagon Blocked National Guard From “Interacting With” Insurrectionists – Mark Sumner (Daily Kos, January 8, 2021).
Twitter Bans President Trump Permanently – Brian Fung (CNN Business, January 8, 2021).
Attack on Capitol Affirms Trumpism Will Live On After Trump Leaves White House – Henry A. Giroux (TruthOut, January 8, 2021).
Storming the U.S. Capitol Was About Maintaining White Power in America – Hakeem Jefferson (FiveThirtyEight.com, January 8, 2021).
The Distressing Truth: Why White People Are Embracing Fascism – Thom Hartmann (Medium, January 9, 2021).
“This Isn’t America”: The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Race – Sam Sanders (NPR News, January 10, 2021).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Insurrection at the United States Capitol
• Donald Trump’s Open and Shameless Criminality
• Trump’s Legacy
• Who Half of Us Are
• About Those Militias
• Heather Cox Richardson on the Unravelling of President Trump
• Rep. Ilhan Omar Responds to President Trump’s Authoritarian Threats
• Marianne Williamson on America’s “Cults of Madness”
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy
• “Fascism Is Upon Us”
• President Trump, “We Hold You Responsible”
• In Charlottesville, the Face of Terrorism In the U.S.
• Trump’s America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying “No” to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump as President
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• Trump’s Playbook
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump