On the Consequence-Free Lives Of White Men

What’s the point of white skin and the power it brings if you have to turn around and answer to someone?

Questions have emerged from the attempted coup on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. Many of them have caused so much of America to reevaluate its understanding of how the law and fairness work in this country. How are these people allowed to invade the Capitol and go free? Why are these traitors treated with more kindness than Black people have ever faced for trying to secure equal rights? Where are the arrests? How did this happen?

These are questions that, unfortunately, Black people have had the answers for since we came to this country. And the answer is quite simple: white men have been able to experience an American life unlike anyone else. They get to do the worst harm imaginable without consequence. The meager punishments white men have faced — and the reactions to those slaps on the wrist — only reinforces the fact that they get to live limitless, consequence-free lives.

The people responsible for the insurrection that resulted in five dead have little in common besides their whiteness (or loyalty to said whiteness). They were rich, poor, presidents, congressmen, CEOs, blue-collar workers, off-duty cops, and everything in between. No matter…