Thread by @bradbatt

I hope Tennessee is watching and listening because @brotherjones_ is speaking some truths. I know that Zachary and his ilk don’t want to open their minds, but I think most Tennesseans do.

The only path forward for this state is embracing a culture that includes everyone ✊🏾✊🏽✊🏿

https://twitter.com/thetnholler/status/1649565083951923200

These white men don’t acknowledge that racism exists, so they never see it in themselves.

This clip from 4 years ago demonstrates it perfectly — as then Rep. Micah Van Huss calls Justin Jones a “racist” because he mentioned race and racism in the context of legislation

https://twitter.com/brotherjones_/status/1120804310437253120

And what’s been these white men’s response to being challenged on racism? They’ve fought it every way. They’ve lashed out and lashed back.

At no point have any of these so-called “representatives” stopped and given pause to the idea that they might not know something…

Think of how arrogant you have to be to be a 70+ year old white man and think that you have nothing to learn from a 20-something Black man.

It’s absurd to think that you understand even the first part about their experience. Your life has been completely different than theirs…

And instead of taking even a few moments to listen, to try to understand, or to try to expand their minds in the slightest — they lash back.

They pass laws to ban Critical Race Theory — which is unironically exactly what they’re doing: Codifying racism into the law

Not only are they unwilling to learn, but they want to make sure our kids don’t. They want to hide our real history because it has some very shameful parts. Instead, they want to create a false history of a lost cause where white men were always the good guys.

It’s such cheap racism. It’s appalling that we are still having this conversation in 2023.

But when I think about the fact that my parents—73 years old—went to government-sanctioned segregated schools until they were 15, I suppose it makes sense.

The problem with not admitting our past is that we’re doomed to repeat it. And that’s exactly what’s happening in Tennessee.

We’re moving to defund public education and creating “voucher” schools, who will exclude certain students at will. Back to segregation.

We’re whitewashing textbooks again — to make white people look like heroes and downplay slavery, segregation, colonialism, and every other horror in America’s past.

Meanwhile, we’re writing new horrors in the present for future history books.

The attacks on the LGBTQ community, the fake culture wars on Drag Queens, the removal of long-established women’s rights, and the hysteria over trans people who have existed for centuries is repugnant, fascist, and driven by a false religion of hatred and fear of other

Count me and a whole bunch of other Tennesseans out from your fascist Handmaid’s Tale fever dream where you’re in charge of telling everyone else how to live their lives.

Y’all are drunk on your own power and privilege and have shown the world how detached from reality you are.

It’s not just Democrats who are fed up either. I talk to a lot of people who identify as conservative or Republican, but they don’t think that anyone needs an AR-15. They think everyone deserves healthcare. They don’t give two shits about drag queens.

I loved what @brotherjones_ said in an interview and also on the house floor: “They say the south shall rise again, but I want to say the south shall rise anew”

Yes! A new south. Not going back to old ways and our shameful past, but forging a new, inclusive future for all ✊🏾✊🏽✊🏿

We’re about to chart a new, better, more loving future for this state. Now is just the start. Yes, things are dark, but it’s always darkest before the dawn.

And we have some bright lights in the #TennesseeThree and we’re going to have a lot of other Tennesseans joining them soon