Black Capitol Officers Defend Racist Democracy

When I think about January 6, the first image that comes to mind is that of Eugene Goodman.

It’s a stark image: a lone Black police officer leads an armed, angry white mob away from some of the most powerful people in the country. It’s also a representative one: a Black man saves a democracy that has never served him in a building built by slaves.

Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman gained national attention for his role in the January 6 insurrection. In a now-famous video, Goodman is seen leading a large group of insurrectionists away from the United States Senate chamber.

In the hours, days, and weeks that followed, white politicians and members of the media parroted the same line over and over again: “What happened at the Capitol is not who we are”. I am here to firmly disagree. What happened at the Capitol is who we are as a nation. We are a country founded on white supremacy and racism, and any semblance of progress in our history has been met with violence and antagonism.

Though the insurrectionists attacked the entire Capitol Police Force, the Black officers were fighting a very different battle. In an interview with The Daily, officer Harry Dunn recounts his traumatic experience protecting the Capitol that day.

“A lot of us Black officers fought a different battle than everybody else fought. I said to my buddy, ‘I got called [slur] a couple dozen times today.’ I’m looking at him. He’s got blood on him. I’ve got bloody knuckles. We’re hurting. That’s when I said, ‘Is this America?’ and I started crying. Tears are coming down my face. ‘Is this America?’”

White supremacy and entitlement flowed through the crowd. Rioters could be heard screaming “this is our house” as they removed the metal barriers before breaking into the Capitol. While this is true in some regards, the symbolism of an angry majority-white mob storming the capitol to overturn an election with historic voter turnout among marginalized groups is almost too on the nose.

Black voters in Georgia and Latino voters in Arizona were instrumental in delivering their respective states to Joe Biden. They organized heavily and overcame countless voter suppression tactics inflicted by their own state legislatures. This new Congress was what the insurrectionists were trying to violently overturn.

Their racist anger was timely. It was no coincidence that the attack on the capitol occurred less than 24 hours after Black Georgians delivered two Democrats to the Senate. It was the same anger that drove white suburban residents to poll-watch election results in majority-Black cities.

It’s interesting that Republican cronies attacked Detroit’s election results but said not a single word about Grand Rapids flipping for Biden. In 2016, Kent County, of which Grand Rapids is a part, voted for Trump by a 10K vote margin. In 2020, Kent County flipped for Biden by over 150K votes.

The Capitol, built by slaves, houses the most diverse Congress to date and could be considered a symbol of progress. These insurrectionists were protesting that very notion of progress and equality.

Dunn reflects on the complicated and painful history of the Capitol.

“Looking at the Capitol as a Black person and just knowing the history of it, and how slaves were crucial in the building standing, they are the reason that building is — they built it. And when you take a step back and actually think about it, it gets overwhelming. You’re just like, wow, look at how far we’ve come. And then you’ve got events like the 6th, and you say wow, maybe we haven’t come that far at all.”

Several months before the attack, Trump’s own FBI director Christopher Wray testified before Congress, saying that white supremacists pose a significant terrorist threat. Wray explained that “racially-motivated violent extremists over recent years have been responsible for the most lethal attacks in the U.S.” He explicitly said that a majority of those violent extremist attacks are “fueled by some kind of white supremacy.”

This acknowledgement is striking. It shows that the violent, white supremacist extremism that was on display on Jan. 6 was not an isolated incident. The attack acts as a horrifying example of the racism that continues to fuel millions of Americans.

In the last several elections, white liberals have lauded Black voters and voters of color for voting in large numbers and “saving” democracy. This places an undue burden on marginalized groups who must overcome mass voter suppression just to cast their votes.

The heroic actions of Black officers like Eugene Goodman and Harry Dunn show that once again, Black Americans must save a democracy that has never served them.