Caribbean-American Democratic legislators have strongly condemned what has been described as the unprecedented expulsion of two United States (US) Black Democratic lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives for “disorderly behavior” for their role in leading a protest calling for gun reform.
On Thursday, the Tennessee House voted to expel Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.
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A third Democratic lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, who is white and who faced expulsion, survived the vote that needed two-thirds majority support.
The Republicans charged that the three representatives “knowingly and intentionally” brought “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
“Last night, the Republican majority in the Tennessee State Legislature decided to openly defy their Constitutional responsibilities and disregard the right to dissent in a democracy,” Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“To expel Tennessee State Representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones for standing with and amplifying peaceful protesters demanding meaningful gun reform is an unprecedented and radical shift away from the democratic values, rules, and traditions our nation was founded upon,” added Clarke, first vice chair of the US Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). “This is a democracy. exercising one constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest is not subordinate to the right to the Second Amendment.
“They were exercising their first amendment right and, for that, these young, Black, duly elected men were expelled,” continued Clarke, who represents the predominantly Caribbean Ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York. “They were stripped of their franchise, thereby disenfranchising the people they represent.
“Real change happens when we call attention to a problem, hold our elected leaders accountable, and create meaningful solutions and laws to make every community safer,” she said. “An overwhelming majority of Americans believe we must have common sense gun control reforms. It’s past time leaders on both sides of the aisle come together to help save lives and curb America’s gun violence epidemic.”
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the son of Grenadian immigrants, said: “The injustice we have seen in recent days in Tennessee comes at an intersection of American failures – structural racism, punishing protest, and a willingness to wash our hands in response to unending, unspeakable violence.
“The backlash to this nonviolent act of civil disobedience, and who faced harshest consequences, shows it’s never about the means of demonstration but rather demonizing the identity and cause of those raising their voices,” he told CMC. “But protest is meant to disrupt. Protest is meant to draw attention to and drive change on systemic injustices.
“And in their initial act of protest, in spotlighting and condemning the racist, undemocratic response, these expelled public servants have achieved a great deal,” Williams added. “The initial ‘offense’ of these legislators was to demand action to prevent gun violence in the wake of yet another horrific shooting.
“It is my hope that by expressing dual outrage at conservatives’ inaction on guns and authoritarian reaction to being called out for it, we can direct our anger into progress,” he continued.
Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair, New York State Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, described the expulsion of the Black Democratic legislators, for “peacefully standing up against gun violence”, as “a deplorable action that goes against the will of the people, ignores due process, and is a clear violation of their First Amendment rights.”
On Friday, US Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of retired Jamaican economist Donald Harris, visited Nashville to meet with the expelled legislators.
At the same time, US President Joe Biden said Thursday’s expulsion of lawmakers who engaged in peaceful protest was “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.” (CMC)
