A Liberal Dose
“Some of Y’all Need to
Calm Down and Take a Breath”
Troy D. Smith
About ten years ago, one of the African American
fraternities on the Tennessee Tech campus -if I remember correctly, in
partnership with the NAACP -organized a Black Lives Matter event on Centennial
Plaza. I knew the young men who organized it, several were my students, and
they were all stellar community role models. However, on social media
(especially Facebook), a large number of local citizens freaked out about it
and many said they were going to grab their guns and show up to contain these “rioters.”
The police actually had to close down Dixie Avenue and cordon the area to protect
the protesters from enraged, paranoid, gun-wielding conservatives. One (white) student
asked if I was going to cancel class, because they had heard the black
protesters had said they were going to shoot every white male and rape every
white female they saw. I let class out just a few minutes early, right before
the event started (right outside our building), so that scared people could go
out the back door and leave campus and anyone who wanted to could walk out the
front door and attend the rally (which I did).
And the rally… was a joyous event, with a huge number of
non-black allies present, and ended in a moving group hug.
Five years later almost the same thing happened on the square
in Cookeville, at the rally after the murder of George Floyd. Local
conservatives were painting an apocalyptic picture of insane rioters all set to
burn down the city, and encouraged one another to grab their guns and go stop
it, and the police had to protect the protesters (even the FBI was present for
that one)… who had a peaceful protest.
Last Saturday, a rally was held on the Cookeville square as
part of the national “No Kings” protest on the day of Trump’s birthday military
parade. I was one of the speakers. In the days before the event, social media
was on fire with paranoid people freaking out. I saw individuals I knew saying
things like “The rioters are coming!” and “Please God protect us!” I saw people
threatening to come shoot the “rioters.” Despite that, there was a huge
turnout- the largest I have ever seen for a protest of any kind in Cookeville.
They trickled in slowly at first, perhaps waiting to see if it was going to rain,
but before long they were pouring in. 600 of them altogether over the course of
the three-hour event, which was one of 2,200 such events across the country
that day involving seven million people. That’s roughly two percent of the
population of the entire United States.
Other than what was going on in Los Angeles (more on that in
a minute) and one or two isolated incidents around the country, these were
non-destructive and peaceful protests. Any aggression that showed up in these
2,200 events tended to be from counter-protesters. In Cookeville a truckload of
boys in their late teens/early twenties drove around the square spraying
protesters with an unknown liquid from an industrial paint sprayer, laughing
and calling people names. Other protesters reported being cussed out (with
their children present) and I’ve heard more than one describe a motorist
threatening them with pepper spray.
And yet… it was an incredibly joyous event. Hundreds of
people laughing and smiling together, bonding, as they shouted out their
complaints about this administration. So… why were so many local conservatives
reacting with paranoia and in some cases aggression?
Because the news media, as well as social media, were
fanning the flames with their exaggerated reports. Even in L.A., the rallies
were peaceful until Trump mobilized the National Guard and the Marines (over
the objections of local government, who saw no serious threat taking place).
And even with that, the news reports -especially on certain channels, but
really across the board -focused on the violence taking place in one small
neighborhood and made it look and sound like Los Angeles was in chaos and being
burned to the ground, stoking the fears of conservative viewers -some of whom
were compelled to at least threaten violence and death to people peacefully practicing
their First Amendment right to assemble in protest (yes, it is a right
guaranteed in the Constitution -and is in fact how our country was started). The
irony is unbelievable- people up in arms (literally) over their friends and
neighbors marching with signs -with their children! -as if it were some kind of
enemy invasion, while a far-right lunatic was going around Minnesota shooting
Democratic politicians and their families (even the dog).
I have been preaching in this column for years about how
people need to tone down their aggression and look at facts they can see with
their own eyes instead of being swept along by narratives of fear and hate.
Here in our region, if you are conservative, at least one out of every three
people you encounter every day -friends, neighbors, coworkers, family -DO NOT
BELIEVE LIKE YOU DO. That does not mean they want to burn down the square or
kill you in your sleep. They are STILL your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and
family, not some alien other. Stop letting yourselves be manipulated into
paranoia. And while you’re at it, maybe go back and re-watch the Twilight Zone
episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee
Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
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