If it wasn’t the most galling image to come out of the United States over the past week, it was surely among the top contenders: troops in battle gear deployed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. They were there as part of US President Donald Trump’s desire to respond to protests over the killing of an African American man by a white police officer through confrontation and “domination,” in the US president’s words. It was particularly galling because the killing of George Floyd, and so many others, recall for many Americans the original sin of the United States: slavery, enforced by violence through the power of the state when that state was a white man’s republic.
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A demonstrator faces National Guards guarding the Lincoln Memorial during a protest against police brutality and racism on June 6, 2020 in Washington, DC.
