Everything’s Political, Including This Holiday

Welcome back to Everything’s Political, Capital B’s news, culture, and politics newsletter! Every Thursday, I’ll take a look at recent stories that seem particularly noteworthy.

But before we dive into this week’s roundup, I first wanted to let you know that Capital B has released a mission statement and FAQ explaining how our national newsroom will be covering the 2024 election. As a pro-democracy newsroom, we want to detail what you can expect from our reporting. Be sure to check it out.

Now on with the show.

Heritage and Hate

I remember walking into the dining hall when I was a junior at Furman University in South Carolina and immediately noticing that something was, well, off. Sprinkled across the tables were small Confederate flags, put there by a group of conservative students. What followed was a campuswide debate on a question that, at least in the South, is as tired as it is tiring: heritage or hate?

I thought about this episode again this week because, in Mississippi, Monday was Confederate Memorial Day. Only a few states, including South Carolina, observe the holiday in some fashion, though they don’t do so on the same day.

Proponents say that the holiday is nothing more than a way to honor people who gave their lives for a cause. But the fact that Confederate dogma continues to shape violence — from a mass shooting at a Black church in South Carolina to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot — shows just how dangerously incomplete that narrative is. And lawmakers aren’t taking it lying down.

“This is a day to celebrate treasonous individuals who promoted slavery or those who were in favor of slavery,” Mississippi state Rep. Chris Bell, a Democrat, told the Clarion Ledger.

Mississippi state Sen. Derrick Simmons, another Democrat, introduced legislation earlier this year to get rid of Confederate Memorial Day, but as has happened in the past, the bill died in the Senate Rules Committee without being considered.

He isn’t giving up, though.

“We should be moving forward to the day that the governor [Republican Tate Reeves] claims that he wants to have, where he represents all of Mississippi,” Simmons told the Clarion Ledger. “He can start by not signing the proclamation every year for this holiday.”

The Anti-DEI Cycle Isn’t Slowing Down

The attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion is relentless.

I wrote in this newsletter just a couple of weeks ago about how Duke University is ending a scholarship for high-flying Black students in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 to gut affirmative action in higher education — a decision that will affect not only enrollment numbers but also the campus cultures that students of color experience.

And now Iowa is making headlines.

The presidents of the state’s three public universities — the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa — recently told the Board of Regents that they are eliminating or overhauling their respective DEI programs. The schools have been working for months to align their policies with the board’s mandate to jettison “unnecessary” DEI programs and boost diversity of thought (which typically means conservative or Republican-friendly thought).

This announcement came around the same time that Iowa lawmakers passed legislation that, if signed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, would further limit spending on DEI offices at public universities.

Clearly, a lot is happening DEI-wise. But, fortunately, the Chronicle of Higher Education has this handy tracker to help you keep up with anti-DEI legislation across the country.

We Grown Now

“We exist!”

This cry is heard in We Grown Now, Minhal Baig’s lyrical new film about two elementary-school-age Black boys — best friends — growing up in Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green public housing project in the early 1990s. But it’s more than just a cry. It’s a celebration — a declaration that Black lives do, in fact, matter.

Part of the reason I’m so excited to see the movie, which is already receiving enthusiastic reviews, is that it feels something like a salve in our current political season. At a moment when conservative groups hope to use the powers of the state to chip away at Black Americans’ rights and dignity, the film grants the duo at its center the kind of warmth — the kind of humanity — that we’re too often denied on and off screen.

I’m not saying that the film downplays the challenges that come with being a Black person in the U.S., but rather that, from what I’ve seen so far, it explores these challenges with a great deal of compassion.

This gentle focus is one of the many things I love about Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’ 2016 film that mines similar emotional terrain. It’s a cinematic approach I’ll never get tired of.

Louisiana’s Latest City

The Republican-controlled Louisiana Supreme Court late last month paved the way for the creation of the affluent and largely white city of St. George, made from a previously unincorporated suburb of majority-Black Baton Rouge.

Immediately, the decision generated backlash. Some worry that the move will only heighten tensions between Black and white residents, and they’re concerned about how denying Baton Rouge a key tax base will affect crucial public services.

“The creation of a new municipality introduces considerable uncertainty around funding allocation for our schools, jeopardizing the cornerstone of our community’s future: education,” the Baton Rouge branch of the NAACP said in a statement. “We urge the court to ensure that current funding levels are maintained, if not increased, to support our schools during this transition period.”

This recent development echoes incorporation battles that have occurred elsewhere, including in Atlanta and Gary, Indiana.

For additional context on St. George, check out the 2022 book, How the Color Line Bends: The Geography of White Prejudice in Modern America. (Full disclosure: The author, Nina M. Yancy, is a friend and former Oxford University classmate of mine.)

Ken Paxton on the Hook

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s been leading the Lone Star State’s yearslong assault on transgender rights, must now go on the defensive.

A Dallas appeals court recently ruled that Paxton, a Republican, can be sanctioned for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. This misconduct case makes him one of the highest-profile attorneys to potentially be punished for attempting to cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s victory, and it comes as former President Donald Trump’s legal team insists that he should be able to get away with plotting to overthrow the government.

For Black Americans, the fact that Paxton might face sanctions provides some degree of comfort: The case shows that it’s still possible to hold to account those who suggested that Black votes aren’t legitimate — and who ultimately fueled the attack on multiracial democracy that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021.

As the appeals court justices underscored, the case targets Paxton not because he was acting in his role as attorney general but rather because he was using his credentials to make a claim that was bogus, harmful, and below judicial standards.

“Subjecting Paxton to disciplinary proceedings does not violate separation of powers,” they wrote. “Immunizing him does.”

Clearing my calendar for We Grown Now,

Brandon Tensley

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