In a state fraught with racist history, GOP expulsion of "Tennessee Three" hits a nerve

[Diamond_Dog]

The way these legislators have been treated is just astonishing. They weren’t allowed to speak. Their microphones were turned off. They weren’t allowed to vote. Their voting machines were turned off. I’m at a total loss for words.

*****

After Tennessee Republicans expelled two rising young Black Democratic state representatives April 6 for leading a protest demanding gun reform, people inside and outside the legislature began saying the quiet part out loud.

In a state fraught with racist history and in a Capitol that just recently removed the bust of the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Thursday’s vote was too much for so many who saw old patterns reassert themselves. Though three Democrats faced expulsion for their protest March 30 in the chamber of the House of Representatives, only one survived the votes: Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a white woman.

The all-day spectacle was political retribution for Johnson and her two freshmen Democratic colleagues, Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, for leading "disorderly" gun reform chants that briefly disrupted House proceedings three days after three 9-year-olds and three adults were murdered in a hail of gunfire at The Covenant School in Nashville.

(snip)

He [Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie of Knoxville, chairman of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislatures] went down a list of issues that have come up in this session:

A GOP-led effort to rename civil rights icon John Lewis Way after President Donald Trump,
A suggestion by Rep. Paul Sherrell, R-Sparta, that the state use lynching as an alternative for executions
The state's handling of the housing crisis at Tennessee State University, the lone state-funded member of our nation's historically black universities.

"They don't get it," McKenzie said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/07/tennessee-house-expulsion-black-lawmakers-evokes-racist-past/11621466002/

[sanatanadharma]

1. If they could not vote, it means they were expelled before the vote to expell

Tennessee time travel?

[scarletlib]

2. Unfortunately I think they do.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. If only the travesty of their expulsion could serve as a catalyst

for a general backlash against MAGAtry and other reactionary codswollop.

[sheshe2]

4. More:

“This is what we’ve been challenging all session, was a very toxic, racist work environment where we are not even allowed to speak," he continued. "That’s why we went to the well because the speaker wouldn’t call on us (and) he turned off our microphones. He ruled us out of order any time we brought up the issue of gun violence. When I went outside to support the protesters he turned off my voting machine so I couldn’t even cast a vote on the House floor.

"This is what we’ve dealt with all session and yesterday the nation was able to see that we don’t have democracy in Tennessee, particularly when it comes to Black and brown communities.”