Friday, April 7, 2023

The Tennessee GOP Just "Summoned Up a Thundercloud"

The NBC headline says it all, "Tennessee GOP expels 2 Black Democratic lawmakers for anti-gun violence protests. A white legislator survived her vote."

The two young Black men who were expelled are Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. As we watched all of this unfold on Thursday, one of the stories that emerged was how impressive they are. For example, take a look at how Jones responds when asked about his use of the slogan, "No action, no peace" (second video) - which was posed as a trap to suggest that Jones was calling for violence.  

Jones is no newcomer to protests calling for justice.  

The exchange I'd like to highlight with Pearson is a bit longer. It begins with a diatribe from GOP Rep. Andrew Farmer - who authored the expulsion bill - doing everything but call Pearson "boy." Watch how this young man responds!

After asking the rhetorical question, "How many of you would want to be spoken to that way?" Pearson points out that the reason Farmer spoke that way to an African American colleague is "because he's comfortable doing that - because there's a decorum that allows it." With those words, Pearson got to the heart of the racism on display with a level of wisdom and composure that seems remarkable for a 28 year-old. 

As I watched all of this unfold yesterday, I remembered something written by Eric Wattree back in 2013 when Jones and Pearson were just 18 years old (emphasis mine). 

Being Black in America gives one an education and perspective on life that you can't get anywhere else. That's not widely recognized, because public attention is often focused on the most dysfunctional in the Black community. But contrary to popular belief, that might not be an altogether bad thing, because it allows the excellence within the Black community time to incubate, untainted by the public eye. That's what allowed Barack Obama to explode upon the world stage as a fully developed powerhouse, and there are hordes of others just like him who are currently incubating in Black cocoons in suburbs and inner cities all over America...

So this is an exciting time for Black people, because we recognize that the world is about to discover what we already know - that there is nothing in the human experience more impressive than watching the development of a Black child, who's been dragged through the pits of Hell and the brutal experience of “American Exceptionalism,” then emerge on the other side as a well adjusted, uniquely eclectic, resolute, and learned product of his or her environment.

These are society's unsung heroes, and there are many more to come. They've been tested by fire, and they've prevailed. By the time they've reached thirty, they've faced down more adversity than the average American at eighty. So simply having survived America unscathed, by definition, makes them special.

I suspect that sentiment might make some white people uncomfortable - suggesting that those who have survived oppression might be somehow special. But he is echoing what Barack Obama said to Morehouse graduates that same year. 

As Morehouse men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; know what it’s like to be marginalized; know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination...

So your experiences give you special insight that today’s leaders need. If you tap into that experience, it should endow you with empathy -- the understanding of what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, to know what it’s like when you're not born on 3rd base, thinking you hit a triple. It should give you the ability to connect. It should give you a sense of compassion and what it means to overcome barriers...

So it’s up to you to widen your circle of concern -- to care about justice for everybody, white, black and brown. Everybody. Not just in your own community, but also across this country and around the world. To make sure everyone has a voice, and everybody gets a seat at the table.

As a white woman in her golden years, the emergence of leaders like Jones and Pearson brings me tremendous hope. And as Wattree pointed out, there are a lot more young Black and Brown men - AND WOMEN - out there who are just as powerful (which is probably why Barack Obama is devoting his post-presidential activities to raising them up). 

But it also poses the question Theodore Johnson says is the most important in our country today: "how comfortable are White Americans in a democracy where people of color increasingly hold political power?"

This is subtly, but significantly, different from voter suppression. Angst and anger over particular groups’ increased participation in democracy is giving way to a despair associated with being governed by those groups.

A swath of the right has put its cards on the table. Its comments about immigrants, majority Black cities and Black and Hispanic Democratic officials — coupled with conspiracy theories and disinformation — make plain the fears it harbors about living in a nation where people of color genuinely participate in power.

The expulsion of Jones and Pearson from the Tennessee house is - in part - an answer to Johnson's question. But far from silencing these voices, Republicans just gave them a national stage. As Leonard Cohen wrote:

I can run no more 
With that lawless crowd 
While the killers in high places 
Say their prayers out loud. 
But they've summoned, they've summoned up 
A thundercloud 
They're gonna hear from me. 
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 7, 2023 at 8:27 PM

    We are getting dangerously close to widespread violence. How much longer before the majority of Americans can no longer stand the power plays of the regressive minority? I look at the Tennessee House expulsions, the good probability of some GOP shenanigans in Wisconsin over Janet Protasiewicz's election, and the ruling in Texas concerning mifepristone as just the latest cases that are pushing the fulcrum towards inevitable violence.

    And for what? So that (old) white people can maintain power at all costs? I have to thank Nancy for including Theodore Johnson in this blog, because his WaPo column really hits the mark. In it he talks about erasing people's votes after they have voted, which are exactly what the three examples I gave deal with in spades. One can vote or approve of something, but if the powers that be don't agree with it they'll just strip you of your choice after the fact, and then what's the point of voting?

    Nancy says that she is hopeful about the future with leaders like Justin Pearson & Justin Jones and I am as well. The real question, getting back to Theodore Johnson, is whether the increasingly extremist white fringe will let that golden future occur. I can see protests and other social justice techniques being the "false flag" events that this minority will need to institute martial law and a dictatorship. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

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  2. AnonymousApril 8, 2023 at 6:26 PM

    I have seen this sentiment often, and I fully sympathize with the suspicion of racism, especially given that a white woman member of the Tennessee House was not expelled. Still, make no mistake. This was not just about blackness. This is the war on gun control and the war against disagreement of any kind with the GOP. It's racism, sure, but first and foremost about killing and power for its own sake.

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