Cagle World

The saga of Emmett Till has once again returned to the public sphere.

Till was a 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, during the summer of 1955. He was kidnapped under cover at night, mercilessly beaten, shot, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River for having the “supposed audacity” to flirt with a white woman.

Carolyn Bryant asserted Till grabbed her while making lewd, crude and profane comments, which included whistling toward her. She testified to this before an all-white jury during the trial of her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam. She later recanted that part of her story.

So why are we discussing Till’s legacy again? Because last month, a team reportedly found an unserved warrant charging Bryant in Till’s 1955 kidnapping, and his relatives want authorities to arrest her. Unfortunately, the Justice Department officially closed its investigation into Till’s murder back in December, denying his family the justice they have long sought.

There is much written history that highlights the grim and terrorizing reality for Black people in the South during this largely oppressive era. An all-white, all-male Southern jury in mid-20th century Mississippi had absolutely no intention of convicting two white men for murdering a young teenage Black boy, despite absolute evidence of their guilt. In fact, in closing arguments, the defense made the case that, as white, Anglo-Saxon men, they had a “conscientious” duty to render a not-guilty verdict.

Till’s murder was a prime example of how Black men have long been targets of pathological paranoia, hatred and malice. Black men (in the case of Till, a child), have been seen as particularly dangerous to the safety of white women. Truth be told, we have seen this sort of adultifying of Black children time and time again. Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old pre-teen from Cleveland who was shot by police within seconds of the officers arriving on the scene, was thought by cops to be “maybe 20.” Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was murdered by unhinged vigilante criminal George Zimmerman, was referred to as a 20-something guy.

More than a few bodies of Black men (often innocent) were strung up on trees and burned alive, with body parts chopped off and sold as souvenirs to mentally unhinged spectators who took sadistic delight in such a horrid spectacle. Oftentimes, it was based on the claims of a white woman, whose words (regardless of their truth) took precedence over the rights and dignity of a Black person. It’s impossible to know how many Black people lost their lives due to false accusations.

Recently, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting obtained a copy of an unpublished memoir by Bryant, who now goes by Carolyn Donham, in which she reportedly wrote that “she sees herself as much as a victim as Emmett Till!” Talk about adding insult to injury, or rather murder.

Today, Bryant is 89 years old. Despite the fact that she is an octogenarian, Bryant and anyone else still alive who contributed to this horrid event should face some sort of justice. Till’s decades-old blood remains on her hands, and possibly those of others. The case is a sad reflection of what all too often actually occurred during this most dark and sordid era of American history.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Another week, another young Black man killed by police.

Last week, 25-year-old Jayland Walker was pulled over by police in Akron, Ohio for supposed traffic and other vehicle violations. He drove off with police in pursuit, eventually fled from his car, then ran on foot. Eight police officers proceeded to shoot and kill him, showering him with enough gunfire to wound him 60 times.

The death of Black people at the hands of law enforcement has become so commonplace and routine that many of us have become simultaneously outraged and psychologically numb. Over the past several years, we have morphed into front row spectators to grainy and, in some cases, graphic footage of police officers engaged in horrific levels of violent behavior toward people of color. Jayland Walker was just another casualty added to a far too long list of Black victims of such incidents.

After several days of intense protests roiling the city, Akron authorities released horrific body camera footage of the incident. Despite such horrifically disturbing and unsettling footage, Walker’s family asked citizens of the community to remain calm and engage in peaceful protests. Like Walker’s family, people in and out of Akron want to know why he endured such intense gunfire.

Predictably, certain segments of the conservative media wasted no time brazenly attacking Walker’s character. They falsely claimed he was a violent man and had a criminal record (he had one traffic ticket and no criminal record, according to The New York Times). Personal flaws aside (and we all have our shortcomings), it is probably safe to say he never fatally pumped 60 bullets into another human being while that person was in retreat. The entire situation is nothing short of abominable.

“Jayland was a private kid,” said Bobby DiCello, a lawyer for the Walker family. “He wasn’t married. He wasn’t a criminal. He obviously was in pain. He didn’t deserve to die.”

I also feel for the Walker family, who have been forced to endure vicious insults targeting their late son’s supposed “less than stellar” character, and justifications of his execution by police because he didn’t comply with their orders. Interestingly, those same critics tend to remain eerily silent when unhinged, sadistic white men routinely commit horrendous atrocities and participate in wanton acts of violence.

One has to answer whether the average white person would even be the victim of such random violence by police officers. According to the Washington Post, Black Americans account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans.

If white people were routinely and randomly subjected to police violence at the rate of their Black neighbors, there would be calls for congressional demonstrations and cries of protests so loud it would be political suicide for any politician or police force to ignore.

Notably, almost two weeks later, we have yet to hear from officers involved in the incident. At a recent press conference, Akron Police Chief Stephen Mylett said the officers who killed Walker “need to be held to account” but added, “I am reserving any sort of judgment until we hear from them.” The truth is that Jayland Walker was deprived of such a crucial opportunity.

Most police officers and law enforcement officials are decent, law-abiding human beings who manage to perform admirably doing a job that undeniably can be stressful. There also is a faction — one is too many — of those with badges who shamelessly abuse their power and have to be held accountable for their actions.

White denial, resistance and other factors notwithstanding, Black people are human beings and deserve to be treated with as much respect and dignity as any other group of people. These killings are modern day lynchings. Such sadistic behavior and wicked disregard for people of color cannot continue.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Roe v. Wade — January 22, 1973 to June 24, 2022.

What a month it has been. The right-wing dominated Supreme Court voted to weaken Miranda rights, required states to fund private religious schools, protected border patrol agents from excessive force claims, and weakened the requirements for concealed carry laws.

Oh, and Roe v. Wade was officially overturned.

The ruling nullified a precedent that had been the law of the land for almost half a century. While the judgment was not totally surprising, the court’s decision sent seismic shockwaves throughout the nation and reverberated abroad as well. As if this announcement wasn’t chilling enough to many people, an adjacent opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas indicated that the increasingly ideological court may target more established decisions.

The far-right justice stated that the court should consider revisiting cases relating to access to contraception and also to same-sex marriage and relationships. Among the previous decisions that Thomas mentioned are:

– Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) established the right of married couples to purchase contraception without government restriction.

– Lawrence v. Texas (2003) set that criminal punishments for those who commit “sodomy” were unconstitutional.

– Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Thomas argued that: “[W]e have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents. … After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated.”

As some other pundits and political observers have deftly noted, in his list of established precedents, Thomas omitted Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage. I guess this ruling hits too close to home for Thomas.

The truth is the conservative right has shrewdly and strategically (albeit in a perverse and sinister manner) played the long game. Republicans took cognizance of the success that the left had garnered during the 1960s, such as its monumental victories with the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965), culminating with the ratification of Roe in the early 1970s.

Conservative activists then realized that they could employ similar strategies.

Unlike previous generations of conservatives, who were largely content with the status quo, this group of reactionary right wingers have demanded radical and regressive change. Such conservatives hate the left, as they deem them as being with sympathetic or indifferent to communism. They view mainstream Republicans as pretty much harboring the same values as centrist Democrats on fiscal matters and as liberals on social issues. They deeply resent the civil rights movement for striking at the heart of Jim Crow and segregation. The modern feminist movement has earned their ire as well.

However, abortion became the poster child for their decades-long crusade.

Just as liberals championed politicians like Lyndon B. Johnson, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy, conservatives rallied around political figures such as Ronald Reagan and Pat Buchanan. Although many saw Reagan as the political leader who would lead them to the promised land, Reagan largely gave lip service to the political and cultural right without enacting much of its political agenda.

George H. W. Bush had an adversarial relationship with this group, and his son, George W. Bush, was viewed as the sort of neoconservative who personified the epitome of all they despised. Ironically, it was the thrice-married, womanizing, crude-talking, habitual sinner, occasional Democrat-voting, and non-ideological Donald Trump who delivered much of their agenda for them. The old adage “politics makes strange bedfellows” certainly rings true in this case.

Now, after realizing their decades-long goal of getting Roe repealed, as Justice Thomas has made it clear, the conservative far right is wasting no time in making sure as much of its political plan is swiftly implemented. Indeed, in response to the verdict, Texas Senator John Cornyn remarked, “Now do Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education.” After predictable public outrage, the senator attempted to clarify his remarks claiming that he had been trying to say that Brown v. Board (1954) overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

The truth is the far right is increasingly saying out loud the quiet parts of their discourse. Feeling ever more emboldened by the rulings of the past few years, including last week’s Supreme Court judgment, they have made no secret of their long-intended goal to do everything in their power to ensure that non-White Christians, women, the disabled, and LGBTQ people have few, if any, rights, protections, or claims to citizenship.

As many of them believe, the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen and they intend to reach it. People of good will must make every effort to combat such an outcome.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Earlier this week, a political ad from disgraced former Missouri governor and current Republican Senate candidate Eric Greitens was pulled from several social media sites for its alarmingly violent message.

The despicable ad depicts individuals in full military regalia employing a battering ram and hurling grenades into a barren residence. Holding a shotgun and grinning from ear to ear, Greitens says, “Today, we’re going RINO hunting.” He further encourages viewers to “Join the MAGA crew, get a RINO hunting license.”

RINO stands for “Republicans in Name Only,” a term initially ascribed to Republicans who don’t always adhere to the party line. However, these days any GOP politician who refuses to embrace theories of blatantly false propaganda or deviate (no matter how benignly) from the rabid bubble of right-wing delusion are confronted with derision and become frequent targets of violence from die hard hard-core Trumpists.

Greitens’s vile ad dropped days after Texas Republican convention delegates turned on two of its own conservative stalwarts. Senator John Cornyn was loudly booed because he’s was among 10 Republicans that negotiated with Democrats on a very modest gun reform bill after massacres last month at a Buffalo supermarket and a Uvalde, Texas elementary school.

Speaking of Texas, Republicans there adopted an aggressively far-right party platform that rejects “the certified results of the 2020 presidential election,” denounces “homosexuality and LGBTQ people” as an “abnormal,” pushes for schoolchildren to “learn about the humanity of the pre-born child,” and wants the 1965 Voting Rights Act to be “repealed” and “not reauthorized.” Talk about a dystopian agenda.

Instead of rejecting candidate Trump and his odious message of racism, sexism and xenophobia back in 2015, many right-wing Republicans saw an opportunity to regain executive power by coddling white supremacy and tapping into the regressive psyche of the nation’s most banal impulses. Several years later, we are still enduring the results of such retrograde maladies.

In recent years, right-wing violence has been more commonplace and culminated in deadly results, be it the murder of physicians and staff members at abortion clinics, to Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina and Jewish synagogue attendees in Pittsburgh, to the very recent Buffalo supermarket massacre last month.

Recently, we have witnessed a dramatic and ominous increase in colossal acts of violence and intimidation directed at those who are seen as foes of the political, social and cultural right. That includes liberal and progressive politicians, members of the LGBTQ community, immigrants, public health officials, election administrators, and just about anyone who do not support the far right MAGA agenda. Even more distressing, such troubling trends show no signs of abating.

This is not to say that some supposed “RINOS” are indeed, their own worst enemy. In an effort to save face, these are the Republicans who engage in perverse doublespeak. They sporadically espouse pro-Trump rhetoric while trying to hide behind what minimal cloak of respectability they have remaining. Trying to have their political cake and eat it, too. Holding their soiled cards close to their badly stained vests, so to speak. In some ways, they are worse than the committed Trump supporters.

Make no mistake, Trump’s diehard base longs for the day when America returns to the nation it unmistakably resembled in the mid-19th century. The Jim Crow era of the mid-20th century was too benign for them. Their message is clear: either you are with them, or you are against them.

If you are a member of the latter category, they intend to deal with you by any violent means necessary. They have to be combated at all costs.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Last week’s televised hearings addressing the violence that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, were nothing short of riveting and disturbing.

The House committee has been gathering information and investigating the attempted act of sedition for more than a year, amassing at minimum 140,000 plus documents and investigating more than 1,000 witnesses. They learned all sorts of appalling facts, including that former President Donald Trump flippantly said his former vice president “deserved” to be hung after hearing rioters were reciting “hang Mike Pence.”

Newly released footage and original testimony nullified the pathetically disingenuous remark made by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde who equated the behavior of violent insurrectionists to that of a “normal tourist visit.” Several capitol police officers and other witnesses provided testimony to the committee, all of whom were riveting and captivating to listen to.

Engaging commentary notwithstanding, the highlight of the evening was Liz Cheney. The Republican congresswoman’s performance was nothing short of a tour de force. She put her fellow MAGA Republican counterparts to shame, exposing them for both their cowardice and their dereliction of duty. Among her most deliberate comments (one of many) was when Cheney stated “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”

For the record, I am not a political supporter of Liz Cheney. Her politics differ dramatically from mine. Despite her honorable and arguably courageous stance in challenging a sizable segment of her Republican colleagues for their habitually untoward behavior, the truth is that Cheney is a right of center conservative who overwhelmingly supported much of Trump’s agenda during his presidency. Considerable partisan allegiance aside, when it came time to stand up for the protection and preservation of democracy, she disregarded so-called “party loyalty” and aligned herself with the virtues of truth and honesty. For this, she deserves accolades.

Among other facts, the initial night of the hearings revealed that many of those around the former president were well aware of the fact that Trump had lost the election to Joe Biden. William Barr, Trump’s attorney general, testified that he dismissed the claim that the 2020 election was stolen as “bullshit.” Interestingly, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, concurred with Barr’s assessment.

Notably, “numerous” Republican congressmen, such as Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, frantically sought pardons from Trump for their role in attempting to overturn the election. It goes without saying that people convinced of their innocence don’t seek to be pardoned, and it’s old news now that many Republicans in Congress who knew better perversely embraced Trump’s election lies.

There are a number of historical parallels to draw from as it relates to this horrid event. One that seems most evident is the fact that a large percentage of the anarchists who journeyed to the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, are rabid white supremacists.

These were men and women who were inspired and motivated by a fellow white supremacist who was unable to garner the votes of most non-white citizens, failed to successfully win re-election and thus, sought to overthrow the government and dismantle democracy. There has been a long history of this sort of activity in America.

Perhaps Liz Cheney’s most iconic statement made during the opening night of the hearings was the following: “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible, there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

She spoke truth to power here.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Appropriating Franklin D. Roosevelt, May 2022 will likely be a month which will live in infamy. Nearly a week later, the May 24th massacre at Robb Elementary School school in Uvalde, Texas still has many of us reeling.

Yes, we’re here again. From Columbine, Colo. (1999) to Virginia Tech (2005) to Sandy Hook, Conn. (2012) to the Navy Yard in Washington (2013) to Oregon (2015) to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando (2016) to Sutherland Springs in Texas (2017) to Parkland, Fla. (2018) to El Paso, Texas (2019). This month we’ve experienced two horrific mass shootings — Uvalde and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where ten Black people were killed.

Through them all, we find ourselves circling back while pondering the same set of questions and harboring the same set of emotions

Personally, I do not have children, but I’m still mad as hell about what happened. Upon hearing the tragic news, my heart ached, skipped beats and my blood boiled. One can only imagine what the parents of those precious little children are enduring. Seeing these photos of those precious little children whose innocent lives were snatched from them by a sadistic monster is nothing short of heartbreaking.

We’ve already begun to hear the same obligatory comments from politicians from across the political spectrum: “Guns don’t kill people, people do,” “We must pass laws to prohibit such acts from occurring,” “We need to address the issue of mental health,” “We cannot trample on the 2nd amendment,” and so on.

In regards to donating resources to mental health, I fully concur with such an effort. Truth be told, however, the vast majority of people who suffer from mental health issues do not murder anyone, let alone savagely venture on wanton mass murder sprees.

The truth is that a person cannot purchase certain prescription drugs, operate a semi automatic tractor, purchase an automobile, adopt certain pets, purchase a vehicle or certain other items without a background check. Yet, incredibly, in a number of states, including Texas, they can legally purchase firearms. The deceased 18-year-old shooter would not have been able to purchase a drink at a bar or alcohol at any winery or beer store due to the fact he has not reached his 21st birthday, yet is granted permission to purchase all the ammunition he wants. Such a reality defies pure logic and commonsense.

There have been some individuals — including Sen. Christopher Murphy of Connecticut, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, and Randi Weingarten, President of American Federation of Teachers — who have stepped up to the plate, issuing blistering statements decrying such animalistic behavior. Murphy’s impassioned response to Uvalde was elegant, yet candid, and pull no punches:

“What are we doing? There have been more mass shootings [than] days in the year. Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing? Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate, why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job of putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that, as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing? What are we doing? Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this. … This isn’t inevitable. The kids weren’t unlucky. It only happens in this country.”

Rational Americans are getting sick and tired of the ongoing litany of redundant commentary from gun manufacturers, right wing politicians and others who continue to look for scapegoats instead of deciding to confront the issue head on. Such deflection denial and doublespeak by deeply flawed, arguably amoral individuals is wearing thin.

We have been down this dead end road far too many times. It is long past time to make a dramatic U-turn.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Imagine being so crazed with racial hatred that you’re willing to drive four hours to a different city just to murder innocent people that look a little different than you.

Well, the suspected gunman in Buffalo did just that. On May 14th, the 18-year-old drove more than 200 miles from his hometown of Conklin, N.Y. to Buffalo. When he got there, he walked into a grocery store in the Black part of town, shouted racial slurs, and opened fire – murdering 10 people (most of them Black) and injuring several others.

Before the suspect embarked upon his diabolical rampage, he posted a 180-page “manifesto” citing as inspiration, motivation, and justification the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory — the notion of a vast “global conspiracy” (racist/anti-Semitic code word for Jews) to achieve dominance by “importing” people of color to diminish the political power of White people. The N-word had reportedly been etched into the stock of one of his long-barreled automatic weapons.

The obviously disturbed teen’s webpage was deeply infested with racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic rhetoric. There is no question that the attack was premeditated. He targeted a Black-dominated neighborhood “to kill as many Black people as possible,” his white supremacist actions driven by hardcore, deep-seated hatred.

Reaction was swift from both local law enforcement and state politicians. John Garcia, Erie County Sheriff, described the killings as “pure evil,” while Buffalo Mayor Byron White remarked, “It was a straight-up, racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community, outside of the city of good neighbors.” And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul commented, “[I]t is my sincere hope that this individual, this White Supremacist who just perpetrated a hate crime on an innocent community, will spend the rest of his days behind bars.”

Individuals like the suspect have soaked up many of the misguided beliefs they hear from right-wing media, the internet, and opportunistic politicians. Indeed, Fox News and other right-wing media and radio forums routinely espouse irresponsible theories warning of the white population in America being rapidly overtaken by hordes of non-white immigrants.

“Blood is on their hands, 100%,” anti-racist activist and author Tim Wise wrote in a Twitter thread following the shooting. Wise called for the white supremacist groups pedaling the conspiracy theory to be “sued out of existence for inspiring terrors.”

“Vicarious liability,” Wise added. “End them.”

While violence against Black people isn’t new, and though citizens of color in America have been routinely targeted throughout the country’s history, it will take a long time for Buffalo’s residents, the victims’ families, and perhaps even the shooter’s own kin to fully heal from this senseless tragedy—if they ever do.

The same is true of the many people across the racial groups who are demonstrating their support and solidarity and taking a stand against such vehement and violent racial hatred.

In the meantime, what we as a nation can do is make a genuine effort to get to grips with the rabid racial, political, social, and economic fragmentation plaguing our nation. We must be valiant in our efforts if we are to rectify and heal such an unhealthy level of potentially destructive stratification.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

Madison Cawthorn, the 26-year-old Republican congressman from North Carolina, seems to be a lightning rod for controversy. A torrential downpour of allegations are haunting Cawthorn, including calls for an investigation into potential insider trading related to an anti-Biden cryptocurrency.

For the moment, Cawthorn’s future in Congress is somewhat unpredictable. There has been no federal elected official in recent memory who has been similarly battered by such an avalanche of allegations. Claims that he engaged in insider trading. Being caught for a second time bringing a loaded gun into an airport. Driving with a revoked driver’ s license twice in less than a year. Violating salary rules in how he paid his chief of staff. Others are more salacious, like photos taken during a raunchy game on a cruise ship and a leaked video of him naked in bed with his cousin engaging in what he referred to as “foolish” behavior.

The last category of antics sent segments of the internet into a frantic level of delirium, as various observers feverishly engaged in a fierce game of “is he or isn’t he gay?” speculation. But those actions are certainly a sideshow to his irrational behavior as a member of Congress, which to me is far more problematic.

For someone who professes to adhere to religious piety and strict, Christian morals, his renegade actions demonstrate anything but. Last time I checked, bawdy levels of alleged boozing, habitual lawbreaking, embracing anti-Semitism, and thumbing your nose at rules that others must abide by is the antithesis of such values.

Cawthorn’s shenanigans and raucous rabble rousing have garnered loud and intense ire from across the political spectrum. He has been the subject of fierce criticism from a few fellow Republican lawmakers, some of whom are waging a herculean battle to prevent him from winning reelection. Currently, he faces seven Republican challengers in his reelection bid.

While there is indeed a small segment of Republican politicians publicly voicing their displeasure of Cawthorn, many more have been curiously quiet about him. Such silence begs the following question: Would Republican members in Congress be as silent if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush or any other Democratic member (in particular a non-White Democratic member) of Congress had engaged in similar retrograde behavior? Calls for expulsion or at the very least, censure, would be demanded.

One can only imagine the level of right-wing furor if Ilhan Omar, for example, was caught attempting to carry a gun onto a plane, just once, let alone twice. Right wing blogs would go into overdrive with round the clock attacks. For a party that surrounds itself with religious piety, moral values and law and order, such hypocrisy is damning.

In recent weeks, the freshman lawmaker informed his Instagram followers that the “establishment” is targeting him in a “coordinated drip campaign.” adding, “They’re going to drop an attack article every one or two days just to try and kill us with a death by 1,000 cuts, and that is really their main strategy.”

As I see it, Cawthorn is a seriously troubled young man. Under normal circumstances, his political obituary would be all but written by now. Unfortunately, given the current state of the Republican party, he may very well easily cruise to reelection.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

“Hear me clearly, America is not a racist country. I have personally experienced ‘the pain of discrimination’ — being pulled over for no reason and followed around in stores.”

This contradictory statement was made by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina in 2021. Unsurprisingly, fierce reactions ensued immediately, with both sides of the political spectrum aggressively weighing in on social media. Hashtags such as #UncleTim, which were quickly removed from Twitter, and other intensely abrasive terms were hurled toward the senator from the left side of the political spectrum. The response from the political right was complimentary and endearingly laudatory.

While there were a number of things to take issue with Scott’s rebuttal, it was the comment that “America is not a racist country” that opened a Pandora’s box of commentary.

To be sure, Tim Scott’s life is distinctive. In his rebuttal speech to President Joe Biden’s first join address to Congress, he spoke about his upbringing and how he was raised in poverty by a single mother. Moreover, he is a darling son of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. He defeated the sons of the legendary, multiple-term, hard core segregationist senator Strom Thurmond and the popular, former governor Carroll Campbell, is revered by Donald Trump, and won election in what is the staunchest Republican state in the south, arguably in the nation.

The biggest problem is not Scott, even though his rhetoric is sometimes laced with intellectual dishonesty, but rather the frantic attempt by Republicans to convince others that they are not racist by employing conservative Black people like himself, including right-wing pundits Star Parker, Jason Whitlock, Candace Owens, Shelby Steele and Doreen Borelli to name a few. In essence, they provide cover for and espouse largely offensive commentary that many right-wing White conservatives do not dare to say in public. In other words, they tell racists what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear.

This is not to say all Black conservatives demonize other Black people for profit. Republican strategist Raynard Jackson and the late Colin Powell are examples of Black individuals who resided on the political right of the spectrum yet had no problem calling out what they saw as the shortcomings of the conservative movement regarding its disconnect with large segments of the Black electorate.

As a Black person born and raised slightly above abject poverty in hyper-segregated South Carolina, this region has always been hostile toward governmental assistance regarding upward mobility, especially Black upward mobility, Scott is (or certainly should) be aware of the devastating impact that poverty, sophisticated or subtle discrimination, and lack of access to mainstream society can have on the victims of such social inequities and inequalities. Economic and structural racism are undeniable factors in the lives of many poor people of color.

The truth is that racism does exist in America. Most sane, rational and honest Americans know this, regardless of their race or ethnic background. The question is not whether America is a racist nation, but whether we need to utilize legislation, government programs, and other forms of protection to target racism.

The fact is that Tim Scott and other Black conservatives, especially those over 45 years of age, know this all too well. But instead of acknowledging such brutal facts, they resort to espousing and promoting a dangerously misguided form of “bootstrap politics” that too often places the responsibility for change on those who are being disregarded and marginalized. The truth is one must have boots to be able to strap them. Such old-fashioned, “buck up, forge forward, rugged individualism” language is filled with nothing but empty platitudes. It’s a disturbing act to witness to see these far-right Black conservatives resorting to the “blame the victim” mindset.

No reasonable person can deny that systemic and systematic racism are potently repulsive forces in American life. They are evident in our health, educational, environmental, judicial, and political systems. There is far too much concrete evidence to indicate otherwise. Deep down, more than likely, Tim Scott and other Black conservatives (as well as their White conservative cohorts) know this to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Last week, Republicans in Florida, Oklahoma and Kentucky passed strict abortion laws, the latest in an aggressive wave of anti-abortion legislation occurring across the nation.

On April 14th, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill set to go into effect July 1 banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The state previously allowed abortion up to 24 weeks into pregnancy. “We are here today to protect life,” DeSantis said at the bill’s signing ceremony. “We are here today to defend those who can’t defend themselves.”

DeSantis is running for reelection and is seen as a likely Republican presidential candidate in 2024. Not surprisingly, Florida Democrats blasted the legislation, with Rep. Lois Frankel calling it “a dark day for Florida.”

Millions of Americans on both sides of the abortion debate are anticipating with hawkish intensity how the Supreme Court will decide the Mississippi 15 week abortion ban case all and the political ramifications that follow.

In the meantime, both Democratic and Republican controlled state legislatures are busily enacting legislation to either expand or restrict abortion access. While the passion is high on both sides, the fact is that momentum on the issue currently lies with conservatives. Republican-led states have been dramatically successful in enacting laws severely curtailing the right for women to obtain an abortion. Democratic-controlled state legislatures are frantically attempting to implement policy in an effort to expand abortion rights before the court renders its decision later this summer.

Questions surrounding abortion have been largely based on emotion and passion. Should women be allowed to get an abortion? Is abortion murder? How does one determine when life begins? Is abortion acceptable under certain circumstances? And so on. It is a never ending debate.

While it’s women who give birth, it has largely been men who have dictated the agenda surrounding the issue of reproductive rights. Laws passed in recent years in deep red states have been predominately pushed by white Christian men, like in Alabama, where the Republican state legislature passed a law that outlawed abortion under any circumstances. That law was so draconian that even devoutly religious leaders such as Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson said the ruling went too far.

Despite all the action on the right, public sentiment on abortion in the U.S. appear to be decisively pro choice. According to a February Yahoo News/YouGov poll, only 29% of Americans said Roe v. Wade should be overturned, while 51% said it should be upheld. 55% percent of respondents said abortion is a constitutional right that women in all states should have some access to, versus 29% who said it’s something individual states should be able to outlaw.

Do we honestly believe that if any of these lawmakers – who are so supposedly staunchly opposed to a woman’s right to choose – had a wife, daughter or girlfriend who was raped, that they would force them to endure an unwanted pregnancy? I think we all know the answer! Just look back to 2017, when Patrick Meehan, a former Republican congressmen and fierce anti-abortion politician from Pennsylvania, resigned after it was revealed he pressured his mistress to terminate her pregnancy.

The truth is much of the debate centers around power and control. It basically comes down to a certain group of men who wish to exercise control over women. Thus, abortion politics boils down to sexism, misogyny and to some degree, racism. In the latter example, it is common knowledge that some individuals on far right fear a decline in the white population.

We all know that if men could get pregnant, there would be no such discussion. Abortions would be readily available at car washes, mini markets, and fast food restaurants. Such resistance would all but cease to exist. The hypocrisy is both amusing and astounding.

Personally, I am of the mindset that a person should not get an abortion unless they are the victim of rape or incest or the life of the mother is in danger. That being said, I am not a woman, and as I see it, I have no authority to tell anyone else what to do with their body.

If Roe V. Wade is eventually overturned (and the odds look ever increasingly that it will be), abortion rights will return to the states. Women who are determined to get an abortion will find a way to do so. But one thing we know is the debate surrounding reproductive rights will continue, regardless of whatever decision the Supreme Court renders.

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Copyright 2022 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.