This IS America:

Statement on Attempted US Coup by White Supremacists

by Courtni Andrews, Tanvi Avasthi, Aarti Bhatt, Anne Marie Collins, Tinashe Goronga, Michelle Morse, and Jill Petty with the Campaign Against Racism (CAR)

The Campaign Against Racism (CAR) strongly condemns the attempted coup against the US federal government by white supremacists which took place January 6.

As a movement of health workers and organizers committed to dismantling structural racism and racial capitalism — in the US and all over the world — we want to state collectively: Do not be fooled!

Do not allow the white supremacist erasure of history to take place, once again.

At CAR, we work to unmask the truth of historical and present structures of oppression, and to advance the liberation of our communities across nine countries and 24 Chapters globally. We are a collective of healthcare workers dedicated to collective liberation from white supremacy in all its forms. We condemn any and all attempts to avoid naming what happened on 6 Jan 2021 as anything less than an attempt to amplify white supremacy in the U.S. Capitol. In our commitments, we must speak to the truth and bring truth to power.

All last summer, millions of people marched to speak truth to power, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. This is a global movement, and large protests and demonstrations happened internationally. So many of these demonstrations dealt with the brutality of police violence, and the erasure and suffering of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) at the hands of those who do not uphold human dignity, spirit, or life. And the global racial justice protests and actions during Summer 2020 demanded nothing less than structural change. Instead, those in power pushed symbolic change through “diversity and inclusion” trainings, and black boxes on social media. These empty, often dismissive gestures and promises do nothing. While they are dressed up as grandiose, and meaningful, these fallacies will continue to fail America. It is not enough.

We, as health care workers, community activists, and keepers of public health, are tired.

Throughout this pandemic, we have demanded structural and systemic change. Our collective, mutual health requires us to make changes to structures of governance. Moreover, as a community of health workers and organizers, we must be accountable to health equity and not fall into vague definitions that look to avert collective responsibility for material conditional change. Our movement drives forward health equity to fight against white supremacist ideologies that criminalize and pathologize our communities under the false guise of curing some to preserve safety for others.

In other words, we must make more courageous, radical changes to align with demands that have not changed since the start of the pandemic, that listen to and uplift the demands of BIPOC communities worldwide.

For example, defund the police is not a catchy slogan. Defunding the police is an imperative for our collective survival and liberation.The hesitation and lack of action by those charged with defending the capital was intentional and revealed continued complicity. From watching the camaraderie of cops taking selfies with their brethren to people proudly building a noose on the capitol grounds, white power was practiced and paraded with pride once again. While some mainstream press noted the violent spectacle of the Confederate flag being carried up the stairs of the Capitol, there were NO references to the stolen land where the attempted coup was taking place. Another deliberate erasure of America’s role in settler colonialism.

It’s also time to center the impact of global US imperialism in yesterday’s events.

False equivalencies to international coups, orientalist comparisons to other “third world” nations, and the racist term “banana republic” must be disabused at this moment. There is no U.S. exceptionalism or superiority. The erasure and removal of U.S. culpability in global imperialism goes hand-in-hand with failures to name white supremacy in this weak coup attempt.

As a global campaign, we uplift the structural reality of those suffering the consequences of violent U.S. interventionism in Palestine, Haiti, and beyond. These interrelated oppressions perpetrated by the US need to be spoken and heard.

Despite the exhaustion, hopelessness, and fear incurred by systematic oppression and failed leadership, this moment requires everyone’s commitment and participation. Healthcare workers and community organizers have maintained visionary organizing through extraordinary circumstances to create futures free from white supremacy, policing, mass incarceration, violence and genocide. That future should be shaped by health justice principles, starting with reparations and land back.

Now is the time to center BIPOC organizers — their experiences, their stories, their wisdom, and their truths. The events of 6 January offer lessons about the rise of global fascism and white supremacy. To keep moving forward, communities must be the locus of health and healing and strengthen our mutual responsibility to care for one another. We must persist in the struggle for liberation through the dismantling of structural racism and racial capitalism.

Do not be fooled. We are ready. We will not falter. We will persist and we will continue to collectively believe in and build the world that we know is possible.