D.C. drowns out Trump and the RNC

The protesters broke out in chants and played music, all with the purpose of drowning out the Republican convention in Washington, D.C. And for the most part, it worked. Organizers brought bands and DJs; protesters were equipped with pots, pans, and blow horns; and the crowd made enough noise so that if you were in downtown D.C., all you could hear was the sound of protest — which journalists on the South Lawn reported hearing as well.

In his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night, PresidentTrump portrayed his opposition as weak. “This November, we must turn the page forever on this failed political class. The fact is, I am here,” he said on the South Lawn, gesturing to the White House behind him. “And they are not.” But the hundreds of protesters gathered on the north side of the White House wanted him to know that his time there is up.

But what transpired on the streets of D.C. Thursday night was not just an anti-Trump protest; it was also a racial-justice and pro-democracy demonstration against the backdrop of an administration undermining those very ideals. People protested the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back seven times Sunday by Kenosha, Wisc. police, and who is now reportedly paralyzed from the waist down, as well as continued police brutality and racism. Others had signs about saving the Post Office, which Trump has undermined in the lead up to the November election — a move that could potentially spur mass voter disenfranchisement. And most of the protesters had the same overarching message: America is not fully a democracy if it continues to ignore its Black citizens.

A band known for playing go-go music, a funk subgenre that originated in D.C., rallied the crowd by bringing a sound system loud enough to be heard on the White House lawn. “[Trump] plans to stand in front of his presidential palace and make his pitch to the American people for four more years of his racist, reckless, and destructive agenda,” organizers with the band Long Live GoGo wrote in their flyers. “We aren’t having it. We’ll be at the White House on Thursday to drown out his racist rhetoric with another vision for the future of our country. We’re standing up for democracy.”

It was not lost on the protesters that Trump was illegally using federal property as a backdrop and a prop for his political convention, a clear violation of the Hatch Act. “I think it is an injustice and illegal for Trump to be hosting his RNC speech at the White House,” said Bryce Graham, a Florida regional director with the National Action Network, which is organizing a March on Washington that’s expected to draw thousands more to the Lincoln Memorial Friday. “We are here in the name of Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake and we won’t back down until we get justice.”

The contrast between the scenes at the Republican convention and the protests was stark. While Trump packed the White House lawn with his supporters, the streets presented a thorough rejection of him, his policies, and all that he stands for. If Trump presented his opposition as weak, the streets around him proved otherwise.

For Vanity James, a realtor in D.C., the protests made her feel optimistic. “If we don’t want to live under duress for the next four years, we need to make the right decision in November,” she said. But for James, the protests were about much more than Trump. “We came here because there is just so much racial injustice, and we need to show our children and grandchildren that it is necessary for us to peacefully protest so that we can make our point known. And our point is that we don’t have to die at the hands of police, we don’t have to be mishandled by police because we belong to America,” she said, adding a message that all the protesters making noise wanted the president and his supporters to hear: “We are America.”

Abdallah Fayyad can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @abdallah_fayyad.