Why Young Men in the US Should Pay Attention to and Advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment
July 23, 2024
Day 1,448 of Trump's America by Aryana Goodarzi
Americans responded to four years of anti-civil rights with the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and the Georgia runoffs. Women’s rights protests, Black Lives Matter protests, Stacey Abrams countering acts of voter suppression, have all been responses that together will continue to be momentous.
However, in Washington, D.C., only a couple of weeks before president-elect Biden is sworn in, and hours away from the certification of the states’ votes, pro-Trump Americans stormed the Capitol as Congress was about to confirm the election of president-elect Joe Biden. January 6th, 2021 will go down as the ultimate confirmation of who America is really for. With both the electoral vote and the popular vote, Biden demolished any hope Trump had of continuing his presidency. However, while Trump will be out of the White House on January 20th, 2021, there are still the 70 million people who voted for Trump and the politicians who helped get his anti-civil rights policies through.
The Black Lives Matter Movement uncovered the continuous Civil Rights Movement that our country has been in. Women and people of color are making themselves heard and their lack of de facto civil rights known. January 6th brought up the systemic white supremacy the civil rights movement has been confronting, and that which Trump has been upholding. When BIPOC protested on Capitol Hill, an act of civil disobedience that is constitutionally protected, they were surrounded by troops within an hour. People were hurt, shot, or arrested while protesting.
Trump’s people stormed through the Capitol and the lack of action taken amounts to the depths of the systemic inequality of civil rights. Even the definition of who is protesting and who is rioting contextualizes its inherency.
Trump supporters look at BLM protestors and think, "If they're doing it, why can't we?" However, protesting to not be shot at for being a BIPOC is in no way comparable to rioting against a valid election outcome. To compare the two is dismissive and diminishing to the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Not all white people uphold white power, but white power upholds all white people. It is because of this that Trump’s presidency is all that it has been and why the Equal Rights Amendment coming up for a vote can prevent more of it from taking place. Through and through, this is the systemic inequality of civil rights. Many Americans are so beyond words at this point but what pro-Trump Americans did says everything.
