ANGELI PERSONIFIES WHITE PRIVILEGE
Ariz. man demanded all-organic diet in prison — and got it
He’s getting organic food in jail.
One of the faces of the Trump mob, Jacob Chansley, aka Jake Angeli, aka “the guy with the horns,” is getting organic food as he sits behind bars awaiting trial on charges connected with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to an Arizona Republic report.
It might be that this is completely above board, a run-of-the-mill religious dietary exemption that anyone in the same situation might expect, but a lot of people are going to see it as white privilege, plain and simple.
Same thing they saw with George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests.
It points to a massive disconnect between the justice system and the people it presides over, and if we
want to make real progress it’s going to take effort and concessions on both sides. Police officers, prosecutors and judges will have to be more intentional about equality when it comes to law enforcement, and Black leaders are going to have to do a better job of getting engaged to help steer change.
This case represents an example of white privilege so obvious that it should be difficult for even the most ardent conservative to deny.
Angeli, a white man who paints his face and wears an animal-hide headdress with horns, was at the Capitol carrying a U.S. flag on a spear about a month after he pulled a similar stunt in Phoenix. The protest at the Arizona Capitol were child’s play compared to D.C., where five people, including a police officer, were killed and dozens of other officers were injured.
He faces nearly 30 years in prison over charges of violently entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
He’s lucky he’s not facing the death penalty on sedition charges.
But rather than accept his charges and focus on his defense, Jake Angeli launched a hunger strike because the food wasn’t to his liking.
Angeli calls himself a shaman (though it’s not clear how he came to claim such an ordination) and says that his religion demands he eat a strict organic diet, which has given him a “delicate bio-chemical balance” that everyday food would throw into chaos.
Jailers in D.C. didn’t find merit in his request, but a federal judge agreed to his request. Angeli has been transferred to a jail where he can expect “food which has been made by God,” as he describes it.
The privilege is that Angeli, a white man, ran with a pack of goons who tried to overthrow the government, and he feels comfortable criticizing the accommodations of his detention as he awaits trial.
Now compare that with George Floyd, who died begging, “Please, I can’t breathe.”
And compare that with Travis and Greg McMichael, who hunted down Ahmaud Arbery and shot him dead in the street while a friend recorded it. Despite video evidence, the McMichaels and Roddie Bryan, who filmed the violent encounter, weren’t even charged for more than two months. The McMichaels and Bryan are white. Arbery is an African American.
Now compare that with the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation following Floyd’s death. Police wore riot gear and patrolled U.S. cities in armored military trucks, and demonstrators were vilified by the president. Some protests turned violent, but it was a largely peaceful movement aimed at improving relations between law enforcement and minority communities.
Angeli’s fellow rioters at the Capitol, meanwhile, didn’t face nearly the same resistance from authorities. Some even posed for selfies with police. They were whipped into a frenzy by a president who had lost legitimate election and was spreading conspiracy theories saying the system was rigged against him. The protest was violent from the outset, comprised of people who wanted to intimidate lawmakers and prevent Joe Biden from taking office.
Huge chunks of the nation will see these disparities as starkly as black and white.
And anyone who seeks to understand rather than undermine will recognize the legitimacy of their big-picture frustration.