Vendor Writing - Jen A.

Production Notes: From Your Last White Supremacy Protest Rally

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I would like to address the group of white supremacists who showed up at the Juneteenth Celebration in Franklin. If you meant to intimidate the folks attending that joyful celebration of freedom, you totally missed the mark. Did y'all stop to think about what you actually looked like? The only response that your visual presentation evoked was laughter.

First off, you wore white shirts and black pants. Good grief men, everyone knows that y'all consider your pants parts as your power center. Covering your man parts in black showed that you think black lower body parts are more powerful than white lower body parts. Were your white pants at the cleaners? Did you stop to consider khakis?

Or did you believe that you'd soil yourselves because you were so scared and the black pants would provide more discreet cover as you slithered back off to your cars?

The "buffer" of armed gunmen in bulletproof vests. I can't even begin to tell you how pathetic that looked. Are you men or are you mice? Is there any conviction you hold that doesn't need to be enforced and protected with a gun? You looked like a bunch of frightened children. Were your mommies there too?

The signs. This was a major visual faux pas. Your slogans were pedestrian and showed no real emotion. “Stop White Replacement” and “White Lives Matter” are passive phrases when viewed in the context of a Franklin, Tenn., that is 88 percent white. And did it strike any of you as ironic that your white poster-board signs needed black markers to scrawl your hateful messages? You might want to go with black poster board and white markers next time. To be a fullfledged racist you have to think about the image you're projecting. That goes for your white shirts as well. That phoney white-nationalist logo was black. Come on — black shirt, white logo.

Finally, the masks and dark glasses. You are an arrogant group of white men who took every boneheaded opportunity to publicly refuse to wear a mask to protect your neighbors from a deadly disease during the height of the pandemic. Now, suddenly, you show up in a ridiculous mask to assert your hostility toward your Black neighbors. I'd laugh in your face, if you had faces. How can anyone take you seriously if you won't even show your faces to spew your hate. Your visuals vividly showed the fearful cowardice of your true selves. It did not support the disgusting message of white power y'all attempted to project.

I don't know any of y'all. I'm thankful for that. But I believe your attempt at hate and intimidation fell woefully short. You're just not good at it. The next time you're looking for something to do on a beautiful, joyful Juneteenth holiday, why not take part in the celebration. Free yourselves from the bondage of your fear and self-loathing. As Miss Opal always says, “None of us are free until all of us are free.”