Statement from SoFlo NOMA President Vanessa Smith Torres on the insurrection in DC
A week has passed since the insurrection at our nation’s capital. Some may wish to view it as a protest against a fraudulent election. Some would be wrong.
It’s no surprise that images of the events are filled with images of confederate flags – the flags of rebellion, sedition, breaking away from the American Union all to defend and support America’s Original Sin: Slavery.
It’s no surprise that Black Lives Matter protesters were met with a national guard and militarized police force armed in riot gear and ready to tear gas and pepper spray – forces that were nowhere to be found in response to a violent demonstration by white supremacists.
I find myself thinking of so many white terrorists - whose names I will not memorialize – who were apprehended by police without shots fired after they committed mass murder of people of color.
I find myself thinking of all the Black Lives - Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, George Floyd, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, and so many others - cut short by the police for simply leaving their homes while black – or sleeping in their homes while black.
I think of all the Latin American families torn apart both at the border while searching for a new and better life and as a result of American military intervention in Central and South America.
I find myself thinking about the 1954 attack on congress by 4 extremists from Puerto Rico, my native nation. I think about the history of colonialism, of violence against the Puerto Rican State and People, experimentation on and forced sterilization of Puerto Rican Women, and assassination of Independence leaders. These 4 were charged with trying to overthrow the government of the United States - when they were trying to seek freedom for their country.
I find myself wondering if these white Americans will meet the same fate at trial, or even face the same (if any) charges. I wonder, what were these confederate-flag-waving, election-outcome-denying, insurrectionists trying to do if not overthrow the democratically elected government? What were they fighting for? But we all already know the answer: White Supremacy.
More than anything else, a poem by Langston Hughes echoes in my head:
[…] Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.) […]
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again. […]
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be![…]
I repeat those last two lines to myself and think of you all - this amazing group of professionals dedicated to making this industry more equitable. Together, we will make America be America again – the land that never has been yet and yet must be. Because of our work, and that of countless others like us –
America will be.
Stay mad. Stay engaged. Stay active. Stay supporting one another.
Vanessa Smith Torres, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP BD+C
President - South Florida NOMA Chapter 2021
