Tennessee Democrat Rep. Justin Jones was reinstated to his position in the state Legislature Monday following a vote from the Nashville Metro Council to place him back in his previous position.
The 27-year-old lawmaker was expelled from his role by a Republican supermajority last week after he broke decorum rules by assisting a mob of over 1,000 angry people in a walk from downtown Nashville to the state Capitol.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome the people back to the people’s house,” Jones announced on the House floor.
“I’m hopeful for the days ahead for Tennessee,” he proclaimed. “Not because of the actions of this body but for the people who are gathered outside of this chamber who are calling for something better. Who responded to your attack on democracy with an attack of a mass movement for justice and to restore the heart of our state. Not for what you did but for awakening the people of this state.”
Some political commentators have pointed out that the widespread reactions to Jones’ supposed ‘activism’ would likely be very different had it come from Republicans on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a democracy, everyone is treated equally. There are J6 people rotting in prison and being persecuted for doing essentially what Justin Jones did. The rule here is applied unequally because we don’t actually live in a democracy. These people LARPing as civil rights activists… https://t.co/xizojBbHXr
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) April 11, 2023
One Twitter account shared a photo that allegedly showed the Tennessee Democrat standing on top of a police vehicle during a Black Lives Matter riot in June 2020:
TN Rep. Justin Jones standing on top of a police car during a BLM riot in June 2020: pic.twitter.com/jexFQD7uvc
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 11, 2023
Another representative who got the boot last week was Rep. Justin Pearson, a different young Democrat who also participated in the shenanigans.
Various outlets of the mainstream media apparatus jumped on the chance to manufacture an outrage of racism over the incident; ABC News put out a piece titled, “Black lawmaker who was expelled reinstated to Tennessee seat.”
Meanwhile, Politico whined that Republicans kicked out two Black people while being unable to gather ample votes for the removal of a third member, White Democrat Rep. Gloria Johnson. The outlet notably types the word “white” in lowercase, while capitalizing “Black.” This type of racially discriminatory writing style comes from the international media conglomerate Associated Press, which openly states that it is done because White people do not have the same history, culture, or experiences as Blacks. AP additionally claims that capitalizing the word White is “done by white supremacists,” and that doing so opens the chance of legitimizing racist beliefs.
