We can’t call for unity without accountability
The domestic terrorists who incited the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Senators that blocked former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment and all the elected officials who have agitated this violence over the culmination of Trump’s four years in office must be held accountable politically and legally. Following the insurrection on Capitol Hill, many U.S. political pundits adopted the phrase “unity without accountability” to address hollow steps towards peacemaking in Washington D.C.
The word “unity” has lost all meaning when we decide to unite with white nationalists instead of convict them.
Vague calls for unity are weaponized as a means for people to virtue signal while comfortably remaining neutral to prevailing racial and socioeconomic crises. Despite the obvious implication, claiming the need for unity doesn’t require the government to actually have a plan to achieve unity. It’s used as a national defense mechanism in response to the peoples’ complaints about ineffective government. Calling for baseless unity is a meaningless practice and can be harmful to the state because it allows the government to settle without taking legal and legislative accountability for the past four years.
Unity without accountability is dangerous because it reframes optimism to be a performative encounter with justice. It promotes a toxic positivity mindset, discouraging people from looking further into the systems of injustice that overwhelm our institutions. Citizens must expect more than unity speeches by actively being engaged with how the government is going to ensure accountability for the Trump administration’s complicity in corruption and criminal offenses. Beyond pursuing justice directly against the Trump administration, citizens must apply pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that repairing “the soul of our nation” is more than a campaign slogan.
People should not be discouraged from feeling optimistic about this new administration; there is relief, hope and restoration in decency. However, citizens should expect more legislative action from Congress and start organizing action on the ground within the communities closest to them.
Help increase civic education within your family or friend group, donate to local relief funds or mutual aid networks, or join an organization focused on an issue you care about. There are many non-electoral activities citizens can participate in to continue to hold elected officials accountable and impact their communities.
The USC community is not immune to unity without accountability too. Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, many students were underwhelmed with Carol Folt’s response to student demands for USC to address anti-blackness on campus. Holding a series of diversity training sessions is not going to uproot the systemic racism embedded into higher education institutions such as USC. This type of call for unity is a good start but plateaus as performative.
As USC rebrands its Trojan Family values to include diversity, equity and inclusion, organizations like the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation (SCALE) have called out USC for “being unable to uphold its commitment to equity and inclusion when it comes to how it treats its own employees.” USC needs to examine diversity, equity and inclusion beyond the task forces and webinars and must be held accountable for lack of action to protect students’ and faculty’s intersectional identities.
In the midst of a pandemic, socioeconomic unrest, racial inequality and democratic instability, the USC community must look inward to recognize and rectify past performative calls to unity.
The Trojan Family should mean something more substantive than a reference to the alumni network or a football chant. Student activists and coalitions have kept USC on its toes about how they will ensure all-encompassing equity. Those who commit to holding the USC community accountable for past mistakes and are supportive through the redemptive process exemplify what the Trojan Family should look like at USC.
The word “unity” is thrown around to make people feel safe, but we must reconcile with the hard truths behind the semantics of the word. Calls for unity happen because there are real issues that deserve uncomfortable conversations, controversial decisions and nuanced messaging. The “unity” used in thematic political speeches or copy edited into email newsletters almost always feel performative because there’s no intent to indulge in such conversations.
To achieve meaningful unity, there must be a willingness to break down norms and be vulnerable to new practices. If we do not grasp the pattern of unity without accountability in institutions like the government or universities, these flawed systems will remain unchecked. Don’t fall for vague phrases just because they are comfortable.