So racially segregated are our lives that we tend to give it no thought. Covid-19 probably has contributed to this pronounced state, re-emphasizing the tenuousness of our diversity.

The assault on the Capitol made me realize it had been a while since I had spoken to anyone white. Other than passing pleasantries with neighbors and exchanging text messages and emails with a childhood friend, in-laws, and a couple of my former professors, I hadn’t had an extended conversation with anyone white since shortly before the presidential election. My conversations about the January 6^th debacle were all with black folk, and the third, second, or first thing said to me each time about the rioters was, “They couldn’t have been black.”

What diversity we do have is – to some extent – paying off, because black folk were not the only ones saying this. Some white pundits and other tv talking heads made this same observation. No doubt, many of their white viewers did as well. They saw with their own eyes that most who besieged the Capitol to stop Congress from doing its Constitutional duty went home unbothered by the authorities or their own consciences. It was white privilege made manifest.

It was made evident to me once again in the days following that fateful one. It was the Sunday night afterward, January 10^th, when former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi was being interviewed by the host of MSNBC’s The Week With Joshua Johnson. Having read an NBC News report, Figliuzzi said

We’re learning from this report that the FBI disrupted over a dozen already predicated, active, investigative subjects by approaching them in the days just before the Capitol incident and told them – they did what agents call a knock and talk, Joshua. Here’s what a knock and talk looks like. “We’re very close to arresting you. We’re on to you. We’re watching you, and should you get in a bus, car, or plane and head to the District of Columbia, that may serve as the final element of predication and probable cause to put you in handcuffs. Is there anything about this that you don’t understand?” And I’m told from sources that those over-a-dozen subjects were the baddest of the bad. They were the guys that were going to lead this in a more organized fashion. And one source told me this could have been a lot worse had those leaders actually showed up.

My first thought was, “Wow! White terrorists get a heads-up from the FBI!”

My second thought went immediately to a story that highlights the diverse ways in which such matters are handled by that agency. It is an old story now, one from 2006. It is about a small group of black men from an impoverished Miami neighborhood and how the promise of money will sometimes lure some who are poor into all kinds of schemes, including improbable terrorist plots. These unfortunates, there in Miami, were led to believe they should aid an al-Qaeda operative in a plan to blow up the Sears Tower – in Chicago.

As you might imagine, there was no real plan to do anything of the sort. The so-called “operative” was an undercover FBI informant. None of the recruits had any contact with anyone in al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group. They never had the means to carry out any attack. They didn’t even ask for weapons when offered. Even the FBI’s Deputy Director admitted the group was more “aspirational than operational.” Were it not for the Bureau, there would have been no plot, no conspiracy. No matter, though. It took the government three tries, but after two mistrials it finally succeeded in convicting group members in 2009 on charges of providing material support for terrorism.

It seems the criteria surrounding who is eligible to be shown the deference of an FBI “knock and talk” could use some clarification, and some adjusting. I’m sure had any one of those men in Miami been given a preemptive visit from the Bureau along with its “we’re on to you” spiel, things would have turned out very differently.

I suppose we should be grateful that the “baddest of the bad” were discouraged from going to Washington on January 6^th. Plenty of those who did turn out turned out to be bad enough. Washington’s mayor said what happened was textbook terrorism. Some find it difficult to see that when it comes in white.