I could hardly believe my eyes — or ears — as I watched the news this past Thursday evening.
The Tennessee State Legislature voted to expel two young Black representatives.
The Republican Majority Leader, who brought the complaint to the floor, emphasized that this action was because the members had broken House rules with their participation in a protest at the Capitol the previous week.
During this protest, the now expelled members — Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — joined a crowd of thousands of parents and students who marched on the Capitol, calling for gun reform in the wake of the devastating recent mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.
House Republicans claim that Jones and Pearson “knowingly and intentionally [brought] disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives,” breaking chamber rules with their participation in chants during the march.
The Republican-led chamber voted to remove Jones by a 72-25 vote and to do the same to Pearson by a vote of 69-26. Yet for their white colleague, Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson – who participated in the same protest alongside Jones and Pearson – that vote failed by a whopping 65-30 margin.
Hmm, I wonder what the difference may have been there?
Were Johnson’s actions any less “disorderly” and “dishonorable” by the Tennesee Republicans’ same standards?
To her great credit, Johnson openly called out this glaring inconsistency, calling out what so many of us were already thinking.
When asked by reporters after the votes what she thought of the fact that she had been spared expulsion while her Black colleagues were not — even though they all participated in the protest — Johnson replied, “I’ll answer your question: it might have to do with the color of our skin.”
Why This Incident Threatens Our Democracy
Tennessee Republicans and their national supporters may try to downplay these concerns as “woke” or “making everything about race!” But their disingenuous deflection in no way minimizes the reality that racism and racial disparity is still alive and well in America. And so is the threat to our very democracy.
It’s a well-known fact that Tennessee, and the Southern region of the United States, has a long and very complicated relationship with racism and the horror and tragedy that has historically resulted from it.
From the heavy presence of segregation to the fact that Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis in 1968, Tennessee has many stains on its history regarding this topic.
What happened in Nashville on Thursday does not exactly help those lingering perceptions, particularly in the eyes of Black Americans — a community constantly traumatized by happenings in this country, often involving incidents much like what happened in the Tennessee State Legislature.
But the implications of Thursday’s events go well beyond optics — and Tennessee.
Two Black leaders were expelled from a state chamber for joining a non-violent protest, but countless white politicians who either participated in or condoned an actual insurrection at our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, were not only NOT removed from their respective chambers, but were celebrated by the same right-wing movement many of these Tennessee Republicans are actively part of.
That is a problem.
Not only are the actions of these Republicans outrageously hypocritical, but they also set the stage and a dangerous precedent for one party and political group to silence the voices of another, more diverse group.
This allows both racism and threats to democracy to run rampant on a national level.
As Dr. King famously stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.”
Seeing these two young Black men kicked out of that chamber is a stark reminder of the barriers we still need to kick down.
Because at the end of the day, both Jones and Pearson are me — and I am them.
All Americans should not think that what happened on Thursday could only happen in Tennessee or is just a Southern state thing.
What happened to Jones and Pearson could happen to any lawmaker or leader in this country — or any Black person or person of color who dares to exercise their First Amendment rights.
Why Jones, Pearson and Young Voters Represent Hope
Yet, at the same time, young leaders like Reps. Jones and Pearson give me hope that we can combat and curb this wave of racism and fascism in America.
And I’m confident that young voters like the ones who duly elected Jones and Pearson will help save our democracy from these imminent threats.
Though there are people, like the Tennessee Republicans, who do not believe that our government should be “for the people and by the people,” the next generation has shown that it will help guard against these outdated ideologies.
We have seen this vigilance by young protestors in their march for desperately needed gun reform that led to these undemocratic expulsions and the outpouring of disgust and heightened activism that has come in their wake.
While I am incredibly troubled by the rise of extremism in America in recent years, I am even more motivated than ever to continue my work to improve our society, wherever I am.
Because the divisiveness we are witnessing — in Tennessee and across our nation — will not sustain us over time.
That’s why we must keep speaking out against injustices like this everywhere and standing with leaders like Reps. Jones and Pearson.
And we must keep using our voice, which includes and features our vote, in this democracy — in order to maintain it.
Tennessee Republicans may have expelled Jones and Pearson from the chamber — but they cannot and will not silence their voices, or ours — if we do not let them.
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