WE CAN’T DENOUNCE WHITE SUPREMACY ONLY WHEN IT SURFACES
When white supremacy shows its ugly head, everyone is quick to denounce it. Rightfully so.
On Saturday, a group of Nazis walked from Nashville’s Lower Broadway to the state Capitol while waving flags bearing swastika symbols.
State Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, recorded the group’s journey.
“Immediately the reaction of myself and the chief of staff was to try and rush to the parking garage and hide — but then we remembered the way to write wrongs is not to hide but to shine the light of truth upon them,” Jones explained to News Channel 5 in Nashville. “So we recorded them to bear witness to what was going on here.”
This group is known as the Blood Tribe. The neoNazi group has marched in several other cities to protest everything from LGBTQ rights to replacement theory. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee criticized the demonstration. “Nazism and antisemitism should never be tolerated in any form,” Lee said Feb. 17. on X (formerly known as Twitter). “As Jewish people around the world continue to face persecution, Tennessee remains unwavering in our support for the nation of Israel and her people.”
Yes, Gov. Lee, Jewish people are experiencing discrimination around the world, including in Tennessee. In 2021, a private Christian adoption agency denied an adoption to an East Tennessee couple because of their Jewish faith. The couple later sued the state for adoption bias. The lawsuit was dismissed.
“Go away Nazi thugs,” House Minority Leader William Lamberth said via X on Saturday. “This is Tennessee and you are NOT welcome here. Btw, why not show your faces so we can all see who you are? I would be willing to bet that none of you are from anywhere near here.”
Yes, Rep. Lamberth, Nazis have absolutely no place in this state (or anywhere). But surely the minority leader knows there are white supremacists who live in Tennessee.
While the appearance of neo-Nazis in our state’s capitol — an ugly and in-your-face moment — grabbed the attention of elected leaders in Nashville, let’s not downplay the ugly truth that white supremacy appears in other forms in the state.
WHITE SUPREMACY IN TENNESSEE
It was just last year when three historically Black churches were targets of KKK recruitment flyers. The perpetrators were found and were charged with Civil Rights intimidation. A Franklin, Tenn., alderman showed up to a candidate forum debate last year with a white supremacist group, Tennessee Active Club. That caught the attention — and ridicule — of late night HBO host John Oliver.
During a legislative session in 2022, state Rep. Paul Sherrell, R-Sparta, who is white, asked if “hanging by a tree” could be added to the state’s execution methods. His comment was widely condemned for its overt reference to lynching, a way that thousands of Black Americans were killed.
In 2021, state Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, introduced a bill that would criminalize sleeping on public property, targeting people who experience homelessness. To support his proposed legislation, he used quite the example to show how someone homeless can turn their life around.
“In 1910, (Adolf) Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while,” Niceley said. “So for two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that’s got him into history books.”
Nothing on display on Saturday in Tennessee should be seen as an once-in-a blue-moon occurrence.
IT TAKES ONE
Whether there were 24 Nazis or 2,400 Nazis, their display of white supremacy is a reminder of the disease that has plagued our country for generations. The good news, if we choose to embrace it, is that white supremacy can be minimized.
A mob mentality gives white supremacy strength. Twenty white supremacists who scream that “Hispanic people will replace us” is horrifying. But more powerful than that is the one white person who befriends an Hispanic person, learns they are not a threat and comes to respect their story, their life and their aspirations. We must continue to encourage the latter.
And it will take more than social media posts to undo the avenues in which white supremacy is acted out.
We must take a hard look at our own actions and choices. We must do the moral and right thing.