Today, Jan. 6, I’m thinking about the events of a year ago, when a mob of ignorant, white, racist thugs (pardon the redundancies) tried to overturn our democracy by breaking into our Capitol, a symbol of our nation. They damaged our property, injured people and caused at least one death. The question occurs to me: Why was that violence not called a “race riot?” After all, it was performed by people of one race, angry that once again, we have a President committed to racial equality. But what if the rioters were Black? I’m thinking we didn’t call the events of Jan. 6 a “race riot” for the same reason that, when we talk about the European invaders who stole this land from its indigenous people, we call those whites “settlers.” Robin DiAngelo pointed this out in her great book, “White Fragility”: To European-Americans, whites are just “normal people.” It’s everyone else who is part of some “race.” (That’s my take on it, anyway. Discuss among yourselves!)
