“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues and what’s at stake for Black America. 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. RELATED: The Blackest Confirmation Hearing 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.  They’re literally giving ‘get out of jail free’ cards to white people who commit violent crimes against the government and the police. In 1862, when Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, the U.S. paid reparations to white enslavers for the loss of their “property” but nothing to the Black people whose “property” was actually stolen. Because those poor rich white folks who enslaved their Black neighbors were the true victims. In 1868, President Andrew Johnson pardoned the Confederates who killed American soldiers in the Civil War. Because those racist traitors who killed all those people were harmless and shouldn’t have to suffer for destroying our country. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes removed the federal troops who protected formerly enslaved Black people from lynch mobs and klansmen in the South. Because those innocent Southerners had suffered enough. In 1883, the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act, arguing that it would somehow make Black people “the special favorite of the laws.” Because all those innocent white people were being hurt by letting Black people have basic civil rights. Even in recent years, when researchers discovered a 67-year-old unserved arrest warrant in 2022 for Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose false accusation led to the lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, a Mississippi grand jury refused to indict her. That poor old lady didn’t do nothin’ but get a young Black boy killed. What’s the big deal?  While Germany is still prosecuting Nazis from the 1940s, and South Africa is still operating its Truth and Reconciliation Commission three decades after it started to resolve the injustices from decades of apartheid, we in America won’t even punish people who committed crimes against the state from four years ago. We just sweep our dirty history under the rug, and allow the perpetrators to declare themselves to be the victims. I don’t want to hear another word from MAGA about “law and order” and “back the blue.” And I won’t entertain any of their complaints about Black people and immigrants committing violent crimes when they’re literally giving “get out of jail free” cards to white people who commit violent crimes against the government and the police. If you want to know why so many Black people remain enraged in America, it’s because so many white people never allow themselves to be held accountable when they do wrong. Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles. The post Don’t Be Fooled: Trump’s J6 Pardons Are All About Race appeared first on Word In Black. The post Don’t Be Fooled: Trump’s J6 Pardons Are All About Race appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.