NOTE: this email was posted on April 7th, 2023.
The situation at the Tennessee state house had an interesting and somewhat telling resolution to yesterday's imbroglio at Nashville
The two young Black reps were expelled and the 60 year old white female survived albeit by one vote Now it's entirely possible that the reason for the White rep's survival had more to do with her longer tenure in office and the relationships that she formed therein than it did with any racial animus on the part of the legislative leadership but I don't buy it for a minute.
The two young Black reps were expelled and the 60 year old white female survived albeit by one vote Now it's entirely possible that the reason for the White rep's survival had more to do with her longer tenure in office and the relationships that she formed therein than it did with any racial animus on the part of the legislative leadership but I don't buy it for a minute.
White men in positions of power have historically feared angry young Black men who would throw off the shackles of their servitude be it actual or metaphorical White men of a certain social standing have always feared an uprising by those who they considered their inferiors
The violent rebellion in the French colony of Haiti that was led by Toussaint Louverture struck fear into the hearts of the planter class while the abortive slave revolt of South Carolina carpenter and community leader Denmark Vesey terrified residents of the Palmetto State in 1822
The Southampton rebellion in Virginia in 1831 in Virginia led by the charismatic preacher Nat Turner and the resultant oderreaction by the White majority was burned into the memories of Virginians for decades afterwords.
The violent rebellion in the French colony of Haiti that was led by Toussaint Louverture struck fear into the hearts of the planter class while the abortive slave revolt of South Carolina carpenter and community leader Denmark Vesey terrified residents of the Palmetto State in 1822
The Southampton rebellion in Virginia in 1831 in Virginia led by the charismatic preacher Nat Turner and the resultant oderreaction by the White majority was burned into the memories of Virginians for decades afterwords.
White men have historically overreacted to any threat by Black men, be that threat real or imagined. That's the dynamic that underlies the tendency by many Whites, including police officers and ordinary citizens who suffer from paranoia, to react with extreme and often fatal violence when they perceive a threat by any black man.
Some whites are terrified by Black physicality. Blacks are believed to be bigger and stronger than whites, and racial mythology holds that Blacks don't experience pain the same way that Whites do, because of their less developed nervous systems, therefore they require a greater amount of violence to control.
My late Uncle Ernie, who was a champion flyweight boxer, once told me when instructing me in the manly are of boxing that: "If you ever find yourself in a fight with a nigger, don't ever try to hit him in the head because they can't be hurt that way",(Someday I'll tell you how Ernie's barfly of a second wife seated herself at the head table at my wedding and threw an ashtray at my mother in law when she objected). And the White male fear that their wives and girlfriends might experience a case of Jungle Fever and welcome a Black man into their beds, if only to find out once and for all if the legends of Black sexual prowess is more than a rumor.
Some whites are terrified by Black physicality. Blacks are believed to be bigger and stronger than whites, and racial mythology holds that Blacks don't experience pain the same way that Whites do, because of their less developed nervous systems, therefore they require a greater amount of violence to control.
My late Uncle Ernie, who was a champion flyweight boxer, once told me when instructing me in the manly are of boxing that: "If you ever find yourself in a fight with a nigger, don't ever try to hit him in the head because they can't be hurt that way",(Someday I'll tell you how Ernie's barfly of a second wife seated herself at the head table at my wedding and threw an ashtray at my mother in law when she objected). And the White male fear that their wives and girlfriends might experience a case of Jungle Fever and welcome a Black man into their beds, if only to find out once and for all if the legends of Black sexual prowess is more than a rumor.
Because of this history the Tennessee legislature overreacted to a situation that could have been easily resolved with administrative sanctions that would have gone largely unnoticed outside of the greater Nashville area The Legislative leadership has made martyrs out of these young reps, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones,and turned a local story into a national one.
Update April 10, 2023
By a unanimous 36-0 tally, Rep. Justin Jones has just been reappointed to the legislature.
By a unanimous 36-0 tally, Rep. Justin Jones has just been reappointed to the legislature.
