by Noah
Would you be at all shocked if you were driving along the interstate and saw a Tennessee license plate with that "KKK Pride" bit along the bottom? I wouldn't but my career often took me to Nashville and I witnessed that state's brand of racism on numerous occasions, including the time that four young women from the Nashville office of the corporation I was working for (Universal) were openly mocking an African-American employee from our Los Angeles headquarters while he spoke before a large assemblage of company employees. Picture four little blonde Marjorie Traitor Greenes sitting in a row.
Context does matter, very, very much. As we have seen in the goings on perpetrated by the super majority of Republicans in the Tennessee legislature in the last few days, putting "the blacks" (that's the "polite" term, not the one we all know Republicans use when the microphones and camera aren't on) "in their place" is totally the Republican Party brand now. In fact, it always has been, at least since 1968, but as of 2016, they have leadership that has emboldened them to levels that previous racist demagogues, Dixiecrats included, could have only dreamed of. It's all right out in the open right on prime time national TV now, not just lurking in the smirks of lowlife psychoscum like Mitt Romney, Moscow Mitch, Ron DeSantis, Jeff Sessions, and the rest, and not just in the pro-Nazi ramblings of out and out traitors like Tucker Carlson and his like that marched in Charlottesville.
Yes, I know that not everyone in Tennessee is a racist shitbag, at least not openly, but KKK-Republicans make up about 70% of the Tennessee state legislature and we do have a representative form of government. Someone voted for these nightriders to represent them in the Tennessee capitol, ergo at least 70% of Tennessee is of the racist shitbag persuassion. It's called logic. Words and deeds matter and, perhaps nowhere was that more apparent when Tennessee's representative KKKers voted on the expulsion of 3 democratic legislators and chose to expel the two African-American reps but not the white one. I know, shocking isn't it? Funny how the media thought we should be surprised.
And now for some more context: First we got to see how the Repugs of the pro-Domestic Terror Party actually made a show of talking down to the reps they expelled as if they'd just purchased them in the town square. They did this before and after their heinous vote. They've even been doing it as they attempted to rationalize their actions. They've been doing this forever and now, we're starting to be exposed to the proof of that along with their not so subliminal KKK language in the form of some recent "Greatest Hits" of the state's plantation owner wannabees. Just take a look at Tennessee Rep. Paul Sherrell in the following clip. Talk about dog whistling! It's nothing new but we live in a marvelous time where such things can suddenly be available on youtube and similar. And, to think, he's not even wearin' his hood.
My daughter-in-law is from Tennessee, though she fled the state as soon as she met my son. When they went back a few years ago one of her relatives introduced them to friends with "And this is Amy. She's the one who married a Yankee." The war goes on.
Honestly, if you haven't been in one of those states, you forget how open their racism is. I haven't been to TN in over 50 years, but I remember seeing open racism. I've been obliged to be in GA and TX in the past 20 years and saw open (and proud) racism on display.
And that was before trump made racism normal again.