Thread by @SenErikaGeiss

There’s been a lot on my mind lately as we grapple and contend with the recent events over the past months occurring in Michigan & last month in D.C.

You know what’s coming: A 🧵👇🏾

Not going to lie—it’s been traumatizing. Part of me thinks it’s foolish to admit that because there are those for whom that is the point. 2/17

The cruelty of perpetuating the trauma—retraumatizing people and communities of color is the point. But we can’t change or fix it if we don’t talk about the elephant in the room. So talk I must.🗣 3/17

Last night, I shared the @MichiganAdvance piece on how the events over the past several months have affected BIPOC #mileg members. 4/17

👉🏾

https://twitter.com/sjdemas/status/1357324890081230848?s=21

And since last April, @senatorsantana & I (& others) have been calling for addressing the presence of the rebel confederate flag in the state Capitol.

This month, she reintroduced her bill to ban it from the Capitol. 5/17

👉🏾

https://twitter.com/senatorsantana/status/1357101747039313921?s=21

In the @MichiganAdvance piece, I was struck by this attitude from the #mileg majority leader. 6/17

TBH, it left me feeling some kind of way. To think that the confederate flag is basically “no big deal,” at least not big of a deal enough to address because “free speech,” despite its actual history. (That last bit about “not agreeing” I’m sure is a bit of political CYA.) 7/17

Then today, I happened to stumble upon AP writer Aaron Morrison’s piece and he struck a chord, managing to encapsulate my feelings about the #mileg majority leader’s attitude w/the confederate flag & my issues with it. 8/17

Okay, admittedly, I might have an entire subscription at this point 🤷🏽‍♀️, but it’s not unwarranted because we shouldn’t have to be dealing with this issue to begin with.🤨 Anyway... 9/17

Morrison says aptly, “We didn't just arrive here by accident. A real reckoning around white supremacy means we stop debating whether it is the existential threat to democracy [or a threat to free speech].” 10/17

👉🏾

https://twitter.com/aaronlmorrison/status/1357798469260476421?s=21

As Morrison posits “For a very long time, civil rights leaders, historians and experts on extremism say, many white Americans and elected leaders have failed to acknowledge that this war of white aggression was real, even as the bodies of innocent people piled up....” 11/17

“Racist notions about people of color, immigrants and politicians have been given mainstream media platforms, are represented in statues and symbols to slaveholders and segregationists, and helped demagogues win elections to high office.” 12/17

We absolutely must not allow *anyone* to gaslight us into thinking that the confederate flag or its history is anything more gentile or benign than being steeped white supremacy; 13/17

its use rooted in being a symbol of hatred, fear, and a burning desire (sometimes literally) to maintain (white) power & control.

It’s not about democracy (it’s the exact opposite) & it’s not about free speech. 14/17

Shirkey & folks w/his mindset like need to understand & come to grips with the fact that “Confederate symbols are not relics of the past – they are living symbols of white supremacy,” as SPLC chief of staff Lecia Brooks said in Morrison’s article. 15/17

apnews.com/article/f8f793…

And as a “living symbol of white supremacy,” its presence (especially in the Capitol) is an affront to both democracy and free speech and spits on the very premise of “liberty and justice for all.” 16/17

The #mileg needs to do the right thing and forever ban its presence in the Capitol (of a state that fought for the Union) by passing @SenatorSantana’s SB 75. /end

https://twitter.com/senatorsantana/status/1356748822211424258?s=21