With the inauguration of president Biden, the mainstream media are anxious to convince us that it’s business as usual in the US. The assault on the capitol building on 6 January does not necessarily expose the faultlines running through a deeply divided country, but Nancy Murray and Avery Gordon, two prominent political analysts of the US scene, question the narrative of ‘healing’ that Biden promises. QAnon conspiracy theorists and more worryingly, military-trained armed militia have made it clear that, like Trump, they do not accept the legitimacy of last year’s election. The chaos convulsing the United States looks set to continue.
This conversation was recorded on Monday 18 January, two days before the inauguration of US president Joe Biden.
Avery Gordon is an Editorial Committee member of Race & Class. Her most recent book is The Hawthorn Archive: Letters from the Utopian Margins (Fordham University Press)
Biden says: “this is not who we are”
– ‘This is EXACTLY who we are.’Nancy Murray (former @ACLU_Mass) reflects on the assault on the capitol, contextualising it within the US’ wider history and what this could mean for the country president Biden has inherited from Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/wfmZKbXG39
— Race & Class (@Race_Class) January 22, 2021