When Something is Nothing
We all need to know when we are bullshitting ourselves.
One of the most cringeworthy political moments of my life happened in the summer of 2020 when several Democratic Congress folks draped themselves in Kente cloth and took a knee to protest police violence. We know that the moment was clearly designed as a photo op, because we have photos of it. Plenty of them, in fact. It was a part of Congressional Democrats’ press run around the Justice in Policing Act. The photo op was staged about two weeks after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. (The group even kneeled for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, the time it was reported that Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd.) Remember, too, that the summer of 2020 was also early COVID, so we were all in a state of mind from which we have still not recovered. The murder of George Floyd called many of us to actions, some symbolic, some with real world effects. Symbolic action would be like changing your social media avatar to a picture of George Floyd or to an image with the words “Black Lives Matter.” Action with real-world effects would be like burning down a police station. It is always good to remember that there is a range of responses.
As soon as I saw the image of the Congress folks, I was both repulsed and amused. Repulsed because, while it is true that Kente cloth has significant meaning in parts of Africa and in parts of the African American community, it has little to do with police violence. The congress folks would have been better off walking in dressed like the rap group N.W.A. and blasting “Fuck Tha Police” from an ‘80s style boombox. I was amused because I knew that they thought they were doing something. Maybe not everyone thought they were doing something. I would guess that Barbara Lee knew that this was simply symbolic. Barbara Lee is a lifelong activist, and she’s been a community leader longer than I’ve been alive. She had to have known that this was just something to do on the way to doing the real thing. But I think Nancy Pelosi—who, like Barbara Lee, is also from the Bay Area—thought she was doing something. This opinion is based on the fact that Nancy placed herself front and center between Chuck “Whatever you say, Nancy” Schumer and Jim “You owe me, Biden” Clyburn. Nancy has a lot of chutzpah to center herself in a discussion of Blackness. Her home city, San Francisco, is less than half as Black as it was when she moved there in the late ‘60s. Those Black residents who have been pushed out by gentrification sure could have used her kneeling down on rents and home prices. And to make matters symbols worse, the Justice in Policing Act is still not the law of the land. It passed in the House, but it was rejected by a Republican-led Senate. Maybe they should have saved the photo op for after the act passed.
To be clear, I’m not against symbols. As much as I love George Carlin, I disagree with the joke where he says, “I leave symbols to the symbol minded.” That joke is hilarious, but I do think symbols have their place. A very specific place. You can't just place them everywhere and expect the same meaning.
This is one of my favorite pictures in American history.
The two men with their fists in the air are Tommie Smith in the middle and John Carlos on the right. Tommie and John had just won gold and bronze respectively in the 200 meter Olympic final at the 1968 Olympics. This had to be one of the greatest moments of their young lives, and in that moment, instead of celebrating, they chose to hold their fists in the air to protest Black poverty in the United States of America. They made this gesture just six months after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in the midst of organizing his Poor People’s Campaign. The image went viral before viral was a thing. It gave Black people worldwide a simple way to express solidarity with each other – a raised fist. The power of the gesture has lasted through today. And it was a powerful symbol for these men to perform because they knew there would be consequences. Back in 1968, corporations and institutions didn’t want to be seen as part of the fight against racism. Back then, being publicly against racism was perceived as a radical stance. Remember, MLK was not a widely beloved figure when he was assassinated. Unbelievably, to your average American, there wasn’t much difference between Malcolm X’s strategy of “by any means necessary” and MLK’s dream of racial unity.
So when Tommie and John decided to raise their fists in the air, they knew, as Black men who had lived their whole lives in America, that they were putting themselves at risk. That may sound like a hyperbolic way to describe a symbolic act that was in no way threatening to anyone, but if you are Black then you know it’s not hyperbolic at all. Shortly after their protest, the United States Olympic committee kicked the two out of the Olympic Village and told them to go home. Both men received death threats, and their career opportunities were severely limited in the aftermath. The backlash was so severe that it even affected Peter Norman, the white Australian who had won the silver medal in the race. Norman supported their protest and even wore their cause’s official button emblazoned with “Olympic Project For Human Rights.” After his silent support, Norman returned to Australia as a man without a country. Some believe that he was even kept off Australia's 1972 Olympic team as retaliation for his support of Tommie and John. Sometimes symbols are meaningful enough that bystanders get caught up in the wake.
Now we have to talk about Wednesday night when President Tariff gave his State of the Disunion. Clearly, we had some Congress folks, including the aforementioned Nancy Pelosi, who decided that they needed to do something to show their disapproval of creeping fascism. I’m sure the question But what do we do? was circulating in group chats and Slack channels. Clearly, the consensus was split between WE WEAR PINK! and I KNOW A GUY WHO CAN CONVERT PING PONG PADDLES INTO TINY SIGNS FOR CHEAP!
Again, I’m not against symbols, but they have to point to something bigger. They need to:
Direct you to do something bigger AND/OR
Comfort the afflicted by showing solidarity AND/OR
Put the people who are enacting the symbols in harm's way to demonstrate a commitment to a larger cause
If we aren’t covering any of those bases, then what are we doing? Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ protest did all three of those things. There was an organization that they wanted the audience to support: the Olympic Project For Human Rights. Black people worldwide loved the symbol so much that it became an eternal symbol for Black folks' struggle for civil rights. And, as we saw, Tommie and John faced a ton of backlash for what they did. They paid the price for their symbol.
The politicians—who had dipped themselves in pink and/or held their paddles like they were at auction bidding on democracy but had left their wallets at home—were not interested in paying a price for their symbolism that night. You could tell by all the different shades and styles of pink that they couldn’t muster up enough commitment to even unite behind a singular shade. (Apparently the place where Pelosi bulk-ordered the Kente cloth didn’t have pink protest suits in stock.) Despite all that, the “protesting” congress folks actually had a chance to do something. Just minutes into President Thinskinned’s speech he declared that he had a mandate. I don’t know how you have a mandate when you did not even win a majority of all the votes cast in the 2024 election. But anyhoozle! At the moment he declared this, Representative Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, jumped up like someone had spilled hot grits on him. He yelled that there was no mandate, and he kept yelling until Speaker of the House Mike Johnson read from his employee handbook that if Green didn’t stop interrupting that Green would be kicked out. Green responded, “You ain’t said nothing but a word,”* and kept yelling that there was no mandate. Johnson bravely ordered his minions to escort Green out of the room, and the Trumpublicans erupted in less a round of applause and more a round of white supremacy. It sounded downright Confederate in the chamber. It sounded like what if the January 6th insurrectionists had won. Wait… I guess they did.
Meanwhile, the politicians who dipped themselves in pink and/or waved their paddles mostly just sat there and remained a compliant audience for President Always Be Golfing throughout the speech. Later in the speech, a few congress people did leave, but it wasn’t specifically in support of Green. You can tell their protest was preplanned because they were wearing matching printed t-shirts. They didn’t interrupt anything. They didn’t take a cue from Green and continue to disrupt the speech. They just left, while the rest of the “protesters” sat there, thinking that their symbol was enough. From the responses online and in the media, it clearly was not.
To be fair, I like some of the politicians who engaged in the theater. Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee is a real one. You may remember her from when she was on United Shades of America, back when she was just a state representative. Representative Frost has done a lot to show himself as a younger progressive voice capable of big things. Representative Crockett is playing the media game better than any person on the left. Maybe because these reps are newer to Congress, they feel like they have to do what everyone else is doing. Or maybe they thought it was the right thing to do. I’m guessing that, whatever they went into the night thinking, they have learned a valuable lesson.
What’s worse, the next day Congress voted to censure Representative Green for his actions. The vote to censure him included ten Democrats. One of those Democrats was Representative Laura Gillen. The night of President Long Tie’s speech, Laura was wearing pink. To paraphrase the saying, Laura Gillen was pretty useless in pink.
Of course we all know being censured for interrupting the president is not a two way street. Republicans Majorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert interrupted President Biden with no consequences. Marjorie actually got away with it during two different speeches. And I’ll never forget Congressman Joe Wilson shouting “YOU LIE!” to President Obama during one of his addresses with no serious repercussions. They are all white republicans, and Al Green is a Black Democrat. Qwhite something to behold.
Recently, I’ve been encouraging all of you to do something as a way to stand up to fascism. We have talked about starting by looking in your lane for opportunities to help your community. There have been clips of regular folks (many of whom are Trumpublicans) showing up to town hall meetings to yell at their representatives for bowing down to President Musk and Vice President Trump. While these politicians try to sell them on how awesome DOGE is or how they are working very hard to oppose Trump—just in ways that are not measurable to the naked eye—their constituents bring the heat. From booing to verbal indictments that would make Drake call his lawyer, these people are showing up, uniting their communities, and putting themselves in harm’s way. They have skin in the game. If your form of protest doesn’t make you the slightest bit uneasy, nervous, anxious, or tired then you are probably doing it wrong.
In 1902, writer Finley Peter Dunne came up with an oft-quoted and mis-attributed maxim. He was writing about the role of newspapers. In his list of their jobs he included that a newspaper "comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable.” That description has been used to explain the purpose of any job or task that is determined to push towards justice. On the night of President Tiny Hands' speech, Congressman Green’s actions were in that spirit. The rest of the cosplaying Dems were just trying to stay comfortable as they pretended to protest.
So if your aim is to do something then make sure you are DOING SOMETHING.
Who’s with me?
* I have no idea if Congressman Green said that, but that is certainly what a black man of his age would say.
You’re With Me
Merch Alert
Lookit this! New merch drop for your Friday. I hope you like it.
The Who’s With Me? tour rolls on!
This coming week I’m in San Diego. Tickets still available.
Also, we have added some NEW DATES to the WHO’S WITH ME? tour.
April 8 - 13 - Berkeley, CA at The Berkeley Rep
July 11 - Charleston, SC at Charleston Music Hall
July 12 - Durham, NC at The Carolina Theatre of Durham
March Office Hours: Let’s Talk About Parenting with Anna Sale
Thanks to everyone who came to our February Office Hours with special guest Kahlil Greene! We have a real treat in store for March. On Thursday, March 20th from 1pm - 2pm PT/4pm - 5pm ET I’ll be joined by my friend and the host of Death, Sex & Money, Anna Sale. (Anna also has a great Substack newsletter called From Somewhere.) Together we’ll try to figure out how, exactly, to parent kids and teens during this particular moment in history. No big deal. I’m sure we’ll get it done in an hour.
This month we’re trying something new! Office Hours will take place here, on the Substack platform, instead of on Zoom. We’re using Substack’s relatively new live video feature. Hopefully it will feel easier!
Here’s how it works. We’ll email all of my paid subscribers in the morning on 3/20 to remind you, and you’ll get a notification from Substack once Anna and I go live. When you open the Substack app, look in the upper left hand corner. You’ll see our faces and a little red LIVE rectangle. Click on our faces to join. Once you’re in, you can type questions and comments in the chat.
My paid subscribers and Anna Sale’s paid subscribers can participate in the Office Hours live stream on your computer via the Substack website or on your phone via the Substack app. If you don’t already have the app, click here to download it:
I was so embarrassed by the pink-suited pretenders and the paddle-pushers. Thank goodness for Rep. Green for speaking out. That 2020 photo op/faux protest still embarrasses me every time I think about it. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only Democrat who got fed up with Pelosi years ago.
The pink suited silence was loud in its eventual inaction. It proved that anyone can don something symbolic but not everyone can back it up.