a mystical möbius — curating facts, ideas, text, and media to create a contemplative space.
~~~~~
*Peak. White. Privilege.* Right. There.
.
A grateful tip-o-the-hat to photographer Saul Loeb for being there!
America’s deep deep denial
.
ATTENTION: 
.
“Unite the Right?” Remember, “fine people on both sides.”
.
.
Charlottesville to Capitol Hill
I’ve been writing about the very close relationship between American Christianity and White supremacist ideology. Sadly, many church-going people have no conscious awareness regarding the theological roots of White supremacy. In, White Too Long, Robert Jones writes: “American Christianity’s theological core has been thoroughly structured by an interest in protecting white supremacy.”
Last week, thousands of White Christian nationalists took the president at his word and came to Washington to take back their country.
.
.
We’d already seen this level of anger last April at the Michigan Statehouse no-mask rally:
.
.
Intense anger last Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol: .
.
Of course, not all who where part of last Wednesday’s events around the Capitol are violent insurrectionists. Josiah Colt, pictured here dropping into the Senate Chamber, says, “I just got caught-up.” He’s now seeking legal advice:
.
.
However, some White Christian nationalist groups are violently militant. They act-out and serve as avatars for the system of White supremacist racism—a system that has always been held in place by cruel violence. So, then, by association, Eric Munchel’s MAGA zip-tie restraints are for Christ’s sake?!!
.
.
Last Wednesday militant groups took the president at his word when he told them to go to the Capitol and “fight,” to express their strength (get “wild“). The *peak White privilege* image at the top reflects a perceived invincibility white people freely express when in, what is to them, a White supremacist context, e.g., “their country.”
Adam Johnson’s (likely not-conscious) sense of White privilege allows him to believe it’s fine for him to move the furniture in his house:
.
.
Clearly not prepared. Why?
The way White supremacist racism plays into the response to the insurrectionists (who do, by the way, see themselves as “patriots”) comes well before January 6. It’s first reflected in the security planning for the days events. What is likely a not-conscious White supremacist bias in the United States Capitol Police [USCP] leadership—e.g., White is benevolent and safe, while Black is nefarious and dangerous—allowed the planning to be animated by what amounts to turf-battle energy. USCP were planning for “White protest,” so no riot-gear-clad city police, or full camo-kit national guard troops (pictured below), would be needed, unlike as in the security plan for last June’s BLM “Black protest.” So, regarding the MAGA ‘White protest,’ “We’ve got this,” said USCP leadership.
Biased anticipation and poor preparation basically imbedded racism into the lack of real-time reaction capacity by the USCP.
Tucker Carlson misses that White supremacy, and racial bias, made last Wednesday possible long before last week.
.
.
White vulnerability
Lots of concern of late about “leaving 75 million people unprotected.” It’s animated by a deep [e.g., mostly not-conscious] concern to keep White supremacy seated at the head of the American table.
Most white Americans are content to leave the issue of White supremacist ideology and its place in society in the not-conscious realm and are led by social conditioning and their intuition.
Then comes the president who has been willing to be the proxy White supremacist. Willing to demand that this pariah aspect of society be included, be treated fairly, and protected. DJT has been willing to claim and take the darkest aspects of American society into the mainstream.
The [not-conscious] fear being expressed by Ainsley Earhardt is that now without DJT as president there will be no one to publicly and politically represent that White concern.
.
.
A clarion call
A silver-lining is that, now, it has been clearly exposed in real time. It’s clear that America needs something like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that followed the ending of apartheid in South Africa. As painful as it will be, we need a national conversation to engage the sin of White supremacist ideology and its institutional and systemic artifacts.
So, Richard Barnet [pictured below] has been arrested and charged with multiple federal offenses. Somehow, I imagine he’s feeling terribly aggrieved about it and in a candid moment would tell you so, too. The cover image at the top captures the shadow-nature of White supremacy [Who, me?], and this image betrays its smugness:
.
.
Next week: We’ll continue in our mini-series. Come and see.
[this post approx. 800 words (3 min. read].
Sam Sanders on NPR, “The lies we tell ourselves about race”…
.
Your thoughts?
I never know what I’ve said till I hear the response. What did you hear me say?
. 
a mystical möbius 
Very important that we also discuss black privilege or the dialogue goes nowhere.
LikeLike
That’s a new one on me, I’m not sure what you are talking about, Andy. Please elaborate?
LikeLike