When Complacency Seeps In, Evil Wins.
Nearly a year ago, I wrote an article entitled, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.” I touched on several things in that post, but the incident that I’m going to focus on is the expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Tennessee State Legislature. In case you don’t remember; let me refresh your memory. These two Black men and their white female colleague were protesting on the house floor regarding the legislature’s failure to enact gun regulations, after a shooting occurred at a Christian private school in Tennessee. As a result of this civil disobedience interrupting state house proceedings, the Tennessee House expelled Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from their positions, but their white female colleague was able to keep her position.
The Tennessee House claims that they were expelled because they failed to follow proper decorum. I called bullshit on that then, and I do now. You don’t have to be a civil rights attorney to see that this occurred because these two men, these two Black men, had the audacity to step outside their station, and attempt to hold every other lawmaker accountable for their failures as representatives of the people of Tennessee. And let’s take it one step further. By ousting Pearson and Jones, who represent majority Black districts, the Tennessee State House was trying to strip the people, namely Black people from being represented by who they…
