Professor Rashelle Litchmore discusses police response to Capitol rioters in media interviews

Assistant Professor of Human Development Rashelle Litchmore was interviewed on Toronto’s CP24 News and for an article on CTVNews.ca about the stark contrast between police reaction to armed Trump supporters violently storming the U.S. Capitol, and the manner in which police have responded to unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters earlier this year. 

“I am hurt, disheartened, angry, but not surprised,” Litchmore told CTVNews.ca. “Very few Black people with any knowledge of history are surprised right now.

“This goes beyond white privilege,” she added. “This is an ugly manifestation of white supremacy, where white people are presumed to be innocent, to be rational, to be fair, to be just, and Blacks are presumed to be criminal.”

Litchmore, who specializes in ethnic and racial identity, social policy and education, said that North American culture “has continuously excused domestic terrorism as ‘lone wolf’ acts where as Black civil rights protests are framed as criminal, and Blacks as inherently racially and culturally violent.”

During her interview with CP24 news, Litchmore discussed how President Donald Trump has used race throughout his presidency. 

“His campaign started with disparaging Mexicans and Muslims,” she said. “‘Stop the Steal’ is really the latest iteration of white backlash or white supremacist backlash against any type of black progress or minority progress in the United States.” 

Litchmore also discussed the impact of the shadow pandemics of inequality and COVID-19 on people of color. 

“Black and Brown citizens are more likely to be living under the poverty line and working low wage jobs, as well as being frontline workers. So not only are they economically at risk, they are also at-risk health-wise, in terms of not having access to appropriate health insurance and health care and also being at greater risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus,” she said. 

Litchmore told CP24 News that she has hope that the new Biden-Harris administration will work to address inequality and poverty.  

“I think the Georgia runoffs gives the Biden-Harris administration a fair chance at actually pushing forward progressive policies,” she said. 

Prior to her appointment at Connecticut College in 2019, Litchmore served as a senior policy advisor for the Anti-Racism Directorate in the Government of Ontario, Canada. In this role, she co-developed the province’s first Anti-Black Racism Strategy, and provided policy advice for addressing systemic barriers faced by racialized and Indigenous peoples in the education, child welfare, justice and health sectors.