In the Tennessee state house, the Republican majority expelled two black Democrats for demanding stricter gun laws while sparing a White protester on April 6. The incident is reminiscent of dark times in U.S. history and, at the same time, shows that overtly racist actions are still politically rewarded in America.
The place could not have been more fitting. A recent study found that the state of Tennessee is the most undemocratic in the entire nation. The previous week, the southern state certainly lived up to this dubious first place.
Three Democrats, the two African Americans Justin Jones and Justin Pearson and the White Gloria Johnson, had carried a demonstration of students into the plenary hall. The protesters, mainly children and young people, demanded that lawmakers would finally tighten gun laws after three school children and three adults were shot dead in a shooting spree at a Christian elementary school in Nashville.
Jones, Pearson, and Johnson occupied the lectern without permission, chanted demands, and used a megaphone to do so. As a result, the session of the House of Representatives was briefly interrupted. While it was undoubtedly a violation of House rules and decorum, the Republicans’ response was far more than disproportionate and spoke volumes of the status quo in Tennessee.
In a rational America, a fine or perhaps censure would have been an appropriate response. Or maybe Republicans could have ignored it and instead addressed the problem that the demonstration was raising: The terror gun violence continues to cause in the country and the many lives of innocent people it will continue to cost.
But it’s 2023, and rationality, as we’ve witnessed ever since Donald Trump’s arrival on the scene in 2015, rarely occurs in political America anymore.
Hence, both Pearson and Jones were expelled via vote. However, by letting Johnson keep her mandate (not enough Republicans voted to oust her, too), the party not only showed its blatant hostility to democracy – after all, parts of the state’s two largest cities are now temporarily without parliamentary representation as Justin Jones represented around 78,000 people in the capital Nashville and Justin Pearson around 70,000 people in Memphis – but also, and even more importantly, their open racism.
In a shocking revelation, Johnson defended her retention of the mandate by claiming that her race and age had worked in her favour. “I am a 60-year-old white woman,” she told CNN, while Pearson and Jones were “two young black men.”
This disturbing statement not only confirms the racial bias within the system but also serves as a harrowing warning of what could lie ahead. The stark contrast in treatment is a chilling reminder of the country’s dark history and raises serious concerns about its future.
Because the Republican faction based their vote on the Tennessee Constitution. Article II, section 12, states that each chamber of Parliament may establish its rules of procedure, “punish its members for disorderly conduct,” and, with a two-thirds vote, expel a member.
Of course, Republicans do not openly admit that racism was the reason here. Instead, they claim that “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives” were brought to the House. House Speaker Cameron Sexton even compared the behavior of the three Democrats to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, “maybe worse, depending on how you look at it.”
His choice of words tells one all one needs to know about the state of affairs in Tennessee. However, the real question of this shameful grotesque is why Republicans think this behavior is politically a winner.
And the answer to that is as simple as it is startling: America’s problem with racism is on the rise again. Despite leaving slavery, many people in the U.S. are less than happy with how the country is changing racially and ideologically, especially in the southern states, which have a distinctive racist history.
Furthermore, in recent years, the GOP has become increasingly radicalized, both at the federal and state level, and there appears to be no one in the party willing to challenge this conduct. The few who might have spoken out have either departed or are reluctant to risk their mandates.
And while any morally minded person would immediately recognize that the whole saga, the behavior of GOP in Tennessee, should not stand, that political consequences out to be necessary, the bubble in which many party members live means this form of racism is not merely considered acceptable but will have a positive impact at the next election.
Tennessee will, therefore, not be the last incident of this kind, as America is haunted by the sinister ghosts of its dark past, where racism could soon once again be a winning political proposition.
Thomas O. Falk is a London-based political analyst and commentator. He holds a Master of Arts in international relations from the University of Birmingham and specializes in U.S. affairs. The article reflects the author’s opinions and not necessarily the views of The Southern African Times.Â
