Not Everyone Was Surprised by the Attack on the Capitol

Black Americans and social justice workers are plenty familiar with mob violence, the Reverend William Barber explains

Rev. William Barber II at an interfaith service in 2020.Amy Katz/Zuma

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The January 6 attack on the Capitol was, for many Americans, an unthinkable and shocking attack on democracy. For the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, it was old hat.

“I was just screaming at the TV when people said, ‘We’ve never seen this but twice in America,'” Barber said in a conversation with Mother Jones earlier this month. “Are you out of your mind? Poor folk, Black folk, labor, people fighting for women’s suffrage, abolitionists all knew this mob violence, this attack on our bodies and sacred place.”

“What we saw, what the world saw,” he said, “was what finally happens when you seed racism and lies.”

In a wide-ranging discussion of America’s reckoning for racial justice amid a pandemic that has disproportionately infected and killed people of color, Barber, who is the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, is joined by his two daughters, social epidemiologist Dr. Sharrelle Barber and public policy graduate student Rebekah Barber. The discussion, hosted by Mother Jones columnist and reporter Nathalie Baptiste, was originally recorded on February 4.

Watch the full conversation below:

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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