My favorite genre of media in this state is when a nonwhite person calls something or someone racist, and then a white guy has to go investigate in order to see if the nonwhite person is right. Turns out they rarely are! The Tennessean used to be king of this approach. See, for instance, how this white-guy investigation of racism at the farmers market eight years ago involved asking the white woman accused if she was a racist, and then not talking to any of the people making the accusation. Turns out, she was not a racist. According to The Tennessean.
And now, Phil Williams has gone to investigate whether Justin Jones is truly experiencing racism at the state Capitol. For the most part, this is a Godzilla vs. Mothra situation. If the coming summer is full of Justin Jones calling people racist and Phil Williams going around investigating whether that’s true, and then Jones calling Williams a racist and Williams investigating that, I look forward to the entertainment.
But this will not work if everyone tangentially involved also says dumb shit.
Take, for instance, when Williams goes and talks to Rep. Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville), the chair of the legislature's Black Caucus, to ask if Jones’ typification of House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) as racist is fair:
I asked, "Do you think that Leader Lamberth is a racist?"
"No, I don't think that Leader Lamberth is a racist," McKenzie said.
"Was it appropriate for Representative Jones to call him a racist?"
"I have rarely — no, I have never called anyone a racist. I don't do that. It takes the air out of the room."
Blackburn, Lamberth and other powerful Republicans were at Friday's 'Rally to End Child Mutilation.' So were the Proud Boys.
What now? William Lamberth is not a racist? He spoke to a crowd of Proud Boys. If speaking at a rally attended by an extremist white-nationalist hate group doesn’t make you a racist, what does? Oh, he was just there to pick on trans people, not to signal his support of racists? That’s funny, because he didn’t leave or denounce them when he saw who his audience was. And I’m sorry, but this is not a tiger whose tail you can halfway grab. You can’t speak your encouragement of a part of a white-nationalist agenda to a bunch of white nationalists and not be in support of white nationalists, because your presence supports them. It’s the whole point of being there.
Jesus Christ.
And for Williams to leave out this little bit? For McKenzie to overlook it? I mean, let me be clear: I too think that Jones’ approach is more heat than light. And I surely see why he annoys the shit out of his fellow Democrats. But any discussion of Jones’ problems with Lamberth that doesn’t include the context of Lamberth’s willingness to be in community with violent racists is deeply unfair to Jones. Everything Lamberth says or does to Jones is said and done with Jones knowing that Lamberth, at the very least, isn’t uncomfortable when he finds himself participating in a white-nationalist rally.
Of course Jones looks like a hotheaded lunatic if Lamberth is just a regular person with good intentions. However, Lamberth spoke at what ended up (and I would argue, was planned as) a white-nationalist rally. He has never apologized for it. So the only safe presumption we can make is that he still believes that shit and still supports those violent assholes. The only reaction that makes sense is for people to be repulsed by Lamberth. And yet, instead, it’s just people reaching out to Williams to complain about Jones. Oh, OK. Well, I’ll worry about one hotheaded Democrat when the Republicans censure their racists.
Oh, but Betsy, you say, how can we know what’s in their hearts? We don’t have to. We can just look at where they put their feet.
The Republicans who spoke at Matt Walsh’s rally that mysteriously ended up full of Proud Boys:
- House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland)
- Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin)
- State Sen. Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro)
- State Sen. Ed Jackson (R-Jackson)
- State Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma)
- U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn
But wait! There’s more! Janice Bowling tried to give state-owned artifacts to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And here she is with the United Daughters of the Confederacy. And while we’re talking about hate groups masquerading as heritage organizations, Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) is still a proud member of the SCV.
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And, like, this isn’t hidden information. Lamberth’s appearance at the Matt Walsh rally was covered by the media. And yet he’s still the House majority leader, which means everyone who voted for him is somewhat OK with voting into a position of power a man who sees nothing wrong with speaking to white nationalists. So let’s be clear. Even in a most generous reading of this situation, Lamberth values persecuting trans people over standing against white nationalists, and the state House values having Lamberth in a position of power more than it values leadership that is not compromised by flirting with white supremacists. And yet, somehow, the divisiveness is because Jones calls people racist all the time?
This is racist! The thing that allows you to get up in front of a crowd of white nationalists and speak in agreement with their anti-trans agenda is racism, otherwise you would value your nonwhite colleagues, friends and families enough to put their wellbeing first. Putting “It’s important for me to go talk to these white people” ahead of “I should stay out of crowds of white supremacists” in your priorities is racist.
Good Lord. I had thought we were all in agreement with the standard that, if you speak to white supremacists and they come away thinking you’re on the same side, you’re racist. But I guess the standard for being racist is somehow even higher than that. At least according to the white guys who go out to try to find the racists in this state. No wonder they never find any.
