Don’t Be Fooled: Trump’s J6 Pardons Are All About Race

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By Keith Boykin, Word in Black

If there was ever any doubt about the 2024 election, let it be known now that it was not about law and order — it was about white supremacy.

US President Donald Trumps supporters gather outside the Capitol building in Washington D.C., United States on January 06, 2021. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Convicted felon Donald Trump has granted clemency to every criminal involved in the January 6 insurrection to overthrow the U.S. government, including those who attacked police officers. 

If there was ever any doubt about the 2024 election, let it be known now that it was not about law and order; it was about white supremacy.

More than 1,200 people have been convicted of January 6-related crimes, including 200 who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers. And for those who haven’t been convicted yet, Trump ordered the attorney general to dismiss about 450 cases now pending before judges. 

Although the Constitution prohibits treason, Trump’s action virtually nullifies the spirit of the law and establishes a dangerous precedent that whenever white people don’t like the outcome of an election, they can literally attack their own government by force and be forgiven for it.

Yes, this was about race.

The violent insurrection, the attacks on police officers, the targeting of Black election workers, and the attempts to throw out hundreds of thousands of Black votes in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee were all a part of a coordinated campaign to protect the interests of white America in our two-tiered system of justice.

Just last week, even JD Vance was arguing against pardons for the people who attacked Metropolitan and Capitol Police officers. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,” Vance told Fox News. So much for that principle.

Sadly, Trump’s pardons are not an isolated event in American history. By pardoning these thugs and labeling them “hostages,” he continues a long and tragic tradition of sweeping the interests of Black people under the rug to protect a misplaced sense of white victimhood. 

Read the rest of Boykin’s compelling argument.

Learn about the long and tragic history of being Black in America.

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