The year 2021 is leaving us with lots of personal, political, and economic anxieties; it started with the defeat of Trump,
Biden’s transition of power took longer than the Taliban’s transition of power in Afghanistan. Trump became the first president to be impeached twice and banned from Facebook and Twitter. NASA launched the WEBB, and Bezos of Amazon went into space in a phallic shape rocket for a quickie. The conviction of white police officer Derek Chauvin of killing black man George Floyd and disgraced Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting minors for high stake sex. However, she may still have lots of plea bargaining power, all the high-profile names who used her services. Finally, Covid’s pandemic re-surged like our troops overseas. But the most striking event of 2021 was the riots nivation of the Capitol on January 6, better known as the Hillbilly Coup. Angry mob from all over the country came to the Capitol with lots of signs, bananas, hats, costumes to protest the defeat of Trump. In 2021, the country saw more protest symbols in the Capitol since the civil wars.
The protest symbol should be the Times Personal of The Year, not the rich brat Edwin Musk, who plays with his own poops out of boredom. A protest symbol is usually something abstract that hints at something other than its literal meaning, such as an idea, cause, sign, action, color, or belief, and it could be a sign, an image, or a word. Image protest symbol, unlike word symbol,; the Symbol and the meaning intended collapsed together, with no room for interpretations or reflections. These protest Symbols brought into the Capitol were image symbols that signified our troubling political, social, and cultural vices; racism, nativism, anti-Semitism, slavery, anarchism, white supremacy, and anti-government militias.
Here is a list of a few protest symbols and what they represent in the American troubling political culture as they are reported and seen on TV and social media.
-Noose and gallows”.. represent the history of intimidation to blacks
_Confederate flags, support of slavery, and Jim crew era.
-two flags Antifa… that is, nobody knows what they are protesting
– Three Percenters flag… anti-government militias.
– OK sign represent white power and supremacy
_ Nazi sign … anti-Semitism
_MAGA is reduced to an image of a red hat
Those protest symbols unified a bunch of strangers at the Capito to achieve a goal they didn’t even understand. Protest symbols that use words instead of images. “No Justice No Place,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Workers of the World United,” “I have a dream.” all these words of protest create a space between the Symbol (the word) and the meaning intended, that mental space reflects a history of police brutality and racial injustice. However, the two flags Antifa protest image leaves no room for debate, just anti-something that we don’t know. An object can also become a protest symbol when it gains a different meaning than its literal meaning. Black Panther popularized Black Power Raised Fist as a political symbol of black liberation. Denim Jeans that symbolize authenticity and rigidness became a symbol of protesting against establishments and labor oppression. MLK and civil rights leaders wore them during the march in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest racial injustice on April 12, 1963. Black youth wear baggy Jeans as opposing symbols to dominant white fashion and police brutalities. Protest symbols can be seen used worldwide against dictators, occupations, and injustice. Rocks have become the protest symbol of choice, for the Palestinians struggle against the Israeli occupation. Rock gained a different meaning than its inherited salient meaning. It has become a symbol of permanent resistance to Israeli occupation. It is a piece of the occupied land, always available; anybody can use it and doesn’t require any specific skills to use. A rock can be used aging, and again, it is a recycled protest symbol. During the Intifada, I & II 1984, 2000, throwing rocks left the sophisticated Israeli Army helpless against the technology of the stone age protest symbol. The world saw images of the Israeli soldiers with heavy military gears arresting and beating Palestinian children throwing rocks, exposing the moral dilemma of the only democracy in the Middle East, “God’s children” beaten “the children of the rocks”;, as the Palestinian protestors became known. The David and Goliath story is rewritten once more! After the 1967 war, Israel attacked Egypt, Jorden, and Syria and took the West bank and Gaza strips. Israel authorities prohibited the Palestinians from displaying or holding the Palestinian flags or even anything resembling green, white, black colors. The Israeli Army would arrest anyone who displayed the Palestinian flag in public with its Green, White, and black color. Israeli securities closed Palestinian art galleries with flags paintings (Jewish Taliban) . As a form of protest, the Palestinians would carry around slices of watermelon with its Green, White, Red, and black seeds instead of flashing the Palestinian flag that has the same colors. Watermelon is one of the few protest symbols you can eat after finishing the protest. Egyptians use jokes and mockeries as a form of protest symbols. If Egyptians can’t change their leaders, they change their names; Nasser was called “the Catastrophe,” Sadat was the “Traitor,” Mubarak was the “Mule,” and no Egyptian leaders were given names like general el-Sisi. A Name like Candy, a name reserved for an uncouth woman, “a Date ” name usually given to insult and belittle people, “Awad” is a folklore name for a farmer who sold the family land and ran away with a Gypsy. Then the most degrading name was the “Pimp”, for the willingness to say and do anything to get his way. In Latin America, one of the New Year celebrations is traditional called Años Viejos; at the end of the year, people celebrate the new year by burning rag dolls symbolically used to wipe out their cultural or political enemies. “Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see TV hosts and ex-presidents going up in flames.” Reported the Times! Happy New Year, Everyone.
