Everything’s Political, Including TikTok

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.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

TikTok Might Be on Borrowed Time

The clock is ticking for TikTok. Pointing to alleged national security risks, President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed legislation that gives the video-sharing platform’s China-based parent company 270 days to sell the ferociously popular app or face a national ban.

Black users — both teens and adults — use the platform at high rates and have long feared how a ban might affect not just the bonds they’ve forged via the app but also their financial futures.

“I’ve started teaching classes to people who want to learn how to skate, worked with artists like Mulatto [now Latto], and secured brand deals,” one Black TikToker said to my Capital B Atlanta colleague Sydney Sims in 2022, when Georgia legislators were eyeing a statewide ban on the app. “It’s like everything good we have, they take from us.”

(Someone else who’s benefited from TikTok? Lil Nas X. The app catapulted the prankster-slash-rapper to superstardom in 2018 and 2019.)

While the ban is disheartening to many Black users, they’ve been preparing for this moment, diversifying the platforms they use and encouraging their followers to stick with them — whether they’re on TikTok or not.

Remembering a Black Arts Pioneer

Stitch by stitch, the visual artist Faith Ringgold challenged her audiences to view Black life — and Black womanhood, in particular — directly and honestly.

Ringgold passed away this month at the age of 93, leaving behind a towering legacy. One of her most influential artworks was her first “story quilt.” Made up of 56 square panels that blend text and acrylic paint, “Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?” (1983) tells of the fictional Jemima Blakey, a bold and strong-minded Black woman from New Orleans. Ringgold based the figure on beloved women in her family, and created her as a sharp rebuke of the pernicious pancake brand caricature.

For Ringgold, who was part of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, the purpose of art was to poke and prod — and ultimately bring about change for marginalized communities. A former art teacher and organizer, she once painted a mural illustrating “all the things life could bring” women imprisoned on Rikers Island “if they had freedom.”

“I paint from my experience. This is what I know,” as she put it to Hyperallergic in 2018. “I am not a man or European, and wanted to learn and express the lives of my sex and people — not others. So it is important to me to include my people in the conversation. … It’s important to keep the women’s movement and the social justice issues alive — keep it going.”

Today, as Black Americans continue to battle against assaults on their rights and dignity in classrooms and courtrooms, Ringgold’s artistic vision is as politically resonant as ever.

A Key Race in Pennsylvania

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania won reelection on Tuesday, putting to rest speculation that her position on the Israel-Hamas war would thwart her bid for a second term.

The first Black woman from Pennsylvania elected to the U.S. Congress, Lee has walked a tightrope over the past few months. Her call for a ceasefire after Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel in October estranged the freshman Democrat from some in her Pittsburgh community, which is still scarred from the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre. But as Israel’s retaliation claims more and more Palestinian lives — the death toll is around 34,000 — public opinion is very gradually shifting toward Lee’s position.

Tanisha Long, a Black organizer based in Pittsburgh, recently told me that Lee is a great example of what can happen when you run a candidate who reflects the community they’re supposed to serve, and who wants to do right by that community.

“[Lee] doesn’t mince words. She doesn’t play around. She’s not the typical candidate you’d expect to see going to the U.S. House. But she not only talks with the voters here. She also looks like them,” Long said. “Voters trust her to listen to their concerns — and she does.”

“Minnesota Voting Rights Act”

Minnesota is one step closer to being a leader in the struggle to protect voting rights.

The state Senate this month approved a bill that includes a provision — which is being touted as the “Minnesota Voting Rights Act” — that would allow citizens to sue if their fundamental right to vote is being suppressed or diluted. The bill now goes back to the House, where changes can be finalized. From there, it will go to Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party Gov. Tim Walz’s desk.

The bill follows a major decision from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year that said that private plaintiffs — including civil rights groups such as the NAACP and individual voters — can’t sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That ruling covers seven states: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Confronted with eroding federal protection, Minnesota legislators took the issue into their own hands. So far, six states have enacted their own Voting Rights Acts: California, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington. Momentum is also picking up in other states, including in Pennsylvania, where organizers told me just last week that they’re working to galvanize support for similar legislation.

For more on the court decision that’s driving some of this legislative action, check out my previous explainer.

Cornel West’s Quest for the White House

It’s a foregone conclusion that Joe Biden or Donald Trump will be the next U.S. president. But the independent presidential candidate Cornel West has thrown his hat into the ring anyway — and earlier this month he picked Melina Abdullah, a fellow academic and a Black Muslim woman, to be his running mate.

“She has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring that poor and working people are at the center of her vision,” West said of Abdullah, adding, “I wanted to run with someone who would put a smile on the face of Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King Jr. from the grave.”

West hopes that he’ll be able to appeal to Black and Muslim voters who have soured on Biden, particularly when it comes to his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. But whether West will gain any real traction is anyone’s guess — his 2024 bid has been plagued by turbulence as he’s switched parties several times. Plus, Black voters’ reactions to West’s ticket haven’t been particularly enthusiastic, with many saying that he’s nothing more than a distraction.

Be sure to visit our website in the coming weeks. I’ll have a story that takes a closer look at the impact of independent and third-party candidates.

Searching for a Faith Ringgold exhibit in D.C.,

Brandon Tensley

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