Diary of Systemic Injustice- Unequal Treatment of Protestors

Protesting has always been a significant part of United States history in order to demonstrate one’s opinion. This right to protest is protected under the Constitution stating, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble”. I would like to put emphasis on two protests, in particular, one being a protest last year where mostly African Americans gathered around the White House to protest police brutality, and the other one being trump supporters storming the capitol building. The protest last year around the White House consisted of a very peaceful protest where mainly African American demonstrators were chanting and holding up signs of those who have fallen victim to police brutality. This protest ended with police officers in riot gear clearing out the crowd with stun grenades. On the other hand, the storming of the capitol building consisted of mainly white protestors who were breaking and stealing objects and not participating in a peaceful style of protest. For example, as a New York Times article depicts that, “Glass shards crunched under people’s feet, as the scene descended into chaos” (Barry et al. 1). As seen in images one and two below this is the demonstration of some of the damage caused by the storming of the capitol.

                         Image 1                                                                      Image 2

This incident consisted of little to no brute force from the police to decrease the scope of the situation although the level of destruction and danger was much greater. I believe this can be deemed a systematic injustice because the government and police force have plans and policies set in place for situations such as these and they handled both incidents very differently based on the identity of the majority of the protestors. The storming of the capitol with white trump supporters was much more severe and had limited injuries to protestors compared to the peaceful African American protestors speaking out about police brutality. A professor of African- American studies at Princeton, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, in an NPR article declares, ‘I think that is obvious that if the protesters were Black or if the protesters were, you know, protesting police brutality, a U.S. war or something like that, that they would have been brutalized’(Booker 1). I agree with this statement and believe it relates to the concept of the One and Other dynamic discussed previously in class. The Other is the minority group which in this case is the African Americans who get treated significantly different and worse while the majority. This comparison of the White House protest and capitol storming is not one of its kind, more examples can be seen in the links provided below. Clearly, these incidents should have been treated more appropriately by the police force, therefore future situations should be treated based on the severity of the situation not the race of the protestors.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/false-equivalency-black-lives-matter-capitol-siege-experts/story?id=75251279

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/philadelphia-mayor-blasts-double-standard-in-policing-black-and-white-protesters.html

Works Cited:

[1] Bahr, Sarah. “First Inventory of Damage to U.S. Capitol Building Released.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/arts/design/us-capitol-damage.html?auth=login-google.

[2] Barry, Dan, et al. “’Our President Wants Us Here’: The Mob That Stormed the Capitol.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/capitol-rioters.html.

[3] Booker, Brakkton. “Protests In White And Black, And The Different Response Of Law Enforcement.” NPR, NPR, 8 Jan. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/01/07/954568499/protests-in-white-and-black-and-the-different-response-of-law-enforcement.