I believe Elie Mystal said it best when he told MSNBC, “Tennessee has now given the entire country an object lesson in critical race theory better than any AP history course ever could have. Everybody sees it now. Everybody knows it now. Everybody gets exactly what is going on.”
Because of everything that’s going with Twitter, I am hesitant to embed tweets now. We don’t know how much longer that platform is going to last because its current CEO is using like his own personal revenge machine instead of building on what was essentially a brilliant platform that needed some work, but that’s an entirely different rant for an entirely different day.
For today, have this link of Elie talking on MSNBC.
Mystal was speaking on the expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, also known as “The Justins,” and two members of “The Tennessee Three,” a group of three Tennessee state legislators who participated in an anti-gun demonstration on the state House floor March 30 and who were subjected to a vote for expulsion from the state House.
Ultimately, only Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were voted out on April 6. Gloria Johnson — the third member of “The Tennessee Three” who also happens to be white — was not expelled; seven members of the GOP voted against their party in order to keep her.
This was a direct attempt by the Tennessee House to silence voices of dissent, and the aggression in this action is directly related to these members of the state House being Black.
I wrote about this for theGrio.
In the eyes of whiteness, everything Black people do — even when white people like Johnson are right alongside them — is a million times worse than anything a white person can do. Whether it’s a Black person standing up for themselves or speaking out on racial injustice or leading a peaceful demonstration against guns, they are the worst to ever do the worst, and this is the worst thing white people have ever seen and, oh my god, white hysteria help us, white baby Jesus!!!
Tennessee Republicans just demonstrated they care more about upholding white supremacy and silencing Black voices than dealing with gun violence