Shocked and appalled, I am not.
Surprise was not even the word that came to mind when I heard Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith say: "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." I was strangely unmoved. Someone must have replaced my emotions with Novocain. Or, they had slowly become dulled by the word vomit that seems to happen at alarming rates these days. I mean why wouldn't Hyde-Smith be thrilled to attend a public hanging?
At the time of her remarks, she was among her constituents where, I am sure, she felt the most comfortable and safe. She is in a state that led the country in lynchings. A state that waves a dated flag with a Confederate emblem that was used by an army who fought to keep African Americans enslaved among other questionable things. She is also supported by a governor, who calls for the severe punishment of children and a bandleader for bad timing but calls her comment a slip-up.
Why would Hyde-Smith feel remorseful or repentant? She is talking to her base — people like obscene tee-shirt guy. She has no time for apologies. She hasn't hurt anyone who matters to her. She lives in a state that glorifies and wallows in a soiled history of racism and oppression. Those who speak out are troublemakers, and those who stay silent are complicit.
Everyone says they are tired of it and want nothing to do with it. It's too murky and messy to sort out. Just when you think it cannot get any darker, Bryant wants to know why people are talking about lynching and not about black women having abortions. Look, dude, (facepalm) my professors always told me that we cannot use Wikipedia as a reference. It's not just the inaccuracy of his data and deliberate lack of context that is troubling. It is the fact he — in a very not so subliminal manner — is saying Hyde-Smith's lynching/public hanging statement is OK because black women abort babies; thus we can't possibly value black life.
This comment is asinine. If your position is that abortion is wrong; race and percentages don't matter. Your goal is to stamp out abortions among all ethnic groups, period. One abortion is too many, right? However, you're at a news conference stereotyping and slandering our character and reputation by telling anyone listening that we are committing genocide as if we are German Nazis.
I find it almost customary of Mississippi and America to demoralize a black woman's reputation to spare the much-deserved condemnation of a Hyde-Smith. You do not care about what is happening to and in our communities. It is evident in the perpetuation of ideas and mindsets that are not beneficial or productive to us. It is clear in your practice and policies. Your words and inaction do more to harm us than uplift us. And so do televised news conferences where you assume the role of savior and tell us we should care about defective facts.
Look, I am tired of fighting to dismantle a system that is reinforced with archaic and abhorrent thoughts, actions and perceptions. I am tired of defending Mississippi and why I love it. I am tired of subconscious prejudices spilling over into everything we see, hear, smell and taste.
We all know that the rest of this country views Mississippi as some Podunk state. Some seem proud and enthused to help this place remain cemented in an antediluvian era. An era that was only the "good ole days" for some people. We know that we are much more than what our leadership represents. The only way we can change our state is to start by changing who represents us. It may not happen tomorrow, tonight, or next year. But one day, Mississippi will be an accurate reflection of who lives here or maybe it already is.