'White supremacy is not a mental health issue': Justin Jones scolds GOP after Jacksonville shooting

[cbabe]

https://www.rawstory.com/justin-jones-white-supremacy/

'White supremacy is not a mental health issue': Justin Jones scolds GOP after Jacksonville shooting

David Edwards
August 29, 2023, 11:18 AM ET

Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D) this week urged Republicans to take action against white supremacy after a racist gunman killed three Black people in Jacksonville, Florida. Jones spoke about the Jacksonville shooting on Monday as he was honoring the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.

"Because the truth be told, White supremacy is not a mental health issue," Jones said on the House floor. "It is about terrorism, and the shooting that happened in Jacksonville, Florida, was not quote-unquote racially motivated. It was racial terrorism, and until we acknowledge that fact, until we act on that fact, it will continue to happen."

Jones wondered what it would take to address the "crisis... of white supremacy in this nation. Perhaps the mental health issue is doing nothing when you see tragedy happening," he added. "I'm not going to call for a moment of silence because we've had too much silence in this body. I'm a call for a moment of action. Let's protect these Black lives."

Later in the session, GOP lawmakers voted to silence Jones and two other Democrats who were members of the so-called Tennessee Three.

…video at link…

[NNadir]

1. Damn, i love this young man! His eloquence is astounding.

[iluvtennis]

4. +++ agree. n/t

[housecat]

8. and frightening to republicans

[byronius]

2. Right on.

[Chi67]

3. I'm ready to...

…call for the deportation of nazis, racists, misogynists and homophobes. Anybody else had enough?

[homegirl]

5. What sane

country would accept them?

[ChazInAz]

6. Russia would gladly take them.

They have work for them that is right up their line...on the front line.

[housecat]

9. But what sane country?

[Lunabell]

10. good one

[soldierant]

33. Do they deserve to live in a sane country?

Do they even want to live in a sane country? They are doing their best to make this one irretrievably insane.

[housecat]

35. True. Send them to North Korea.

[Lonestarblue]

7. Isn't there an empty island somewhere to stash them?

I think Jeffrey Epstein’s island is empty. Or maybe there’s an island that will be swamped in a year of so because of climate warming. We could give them a year figure out a way to get off the island.

[ShazzieB]

34. Sorry, that won't work.

There are way too many of them to fit on one tiny island. They'd need an island the size of Texas, and even then it would be crowded.

[electric_blue68]

42. Greenland, heh!

[TomSlick]

11. Exile is almost certainly unconstitutional as punishment for a crime.

Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86 (1958).

Exile for evil thoughts would also be unconstitutional and a bad precedent. There are many in the current US House majority who think any DUer's thoughts are worthy of exile.

[txwhitedove]

13. Yes, thank you.

[Chi67]

26. You are correct, of course.

But I'm tired of these people hurting people. And that is EXACTLY what they're doing.

[reACTIONary]

29. +10 ...

.... You are right. I think that those who are calling for it should be taken seriously, but not literally.

[Wednesdays]

38. Yeah, maybe not exile them, but they could leave on their own accord?

We can dream, can't we?

[TomSlick]

46. Hope springs eternal.

However, these folks live to "own the libs." They aren't going anywhere.

[Warpy]

12. No, organized bigotry is a sociological disease and it's rampant in the US

as TFG emboldened every Klanner and other Christian nutjob out there by letting them it was OK to hate Blacks, Jews, Asians Hispanics, and anyone else who didn't balong on that WASP branch of the American people's tree.

I think that is what makes me the angriest at TFG and his bunch, that they were so successful at reviving a disease which had lain dormant enough for us to elect our first president with African heritage to two terms, recreating the rotten days of my own youth along with others my age who weren't WASP.

Much of his administration (if not the man, himself) will end up in prison over their almost laughably incompetent coup attempt, but the real damage they did is elsewhere.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. White supremcy has never been dormant in this country. This country was built on it, and it

permeates all of our institutions.

[Warpy]

17. In one way, you bet.

It hadn't been genocidal until TFG's gang ramped up the hate and gave them permission to do their worst.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. White supremacy hasn't been genocidal until Trump?

There are quite a few Natives, Black people, immigrants, disabled, and other marginalized people over the years who would strongly disagree. White supremacy *is* genocide.

[leftstreet]

20. I think you're talking mostly about white suburbanites

Trump gave them the courage to post racially insensitive remarks on Facebook - which they probably wouldn't have done 5 years before.

Years of evolving government, employment policies and cultural sensitivity to race and gender left them feeling it was "politically incorrect" to say what they were really thinking all along. But yeah, he did drop the dog-whistling

[Evolve Dammit]

15. Domestic terrorist. Nazis. I hate Nazis. So did my Dad and all his vet brothers who fought them. n

[housecat]

22. My Dad too.

[Evolve Dammit]

28. Millions of Dads. GOP acts as if their efforts are irrelevent today. Pisses me RTFO.

[IronLionZion]

16. We need to stop making excuses for the people who murder Americans

Mass shootings happen all over our country in any type of location. Yet we can't seem to admit that Americans are being terrorized in our own communities simply for existing. The mental illness excuse needs to stop. Mass murderers are not the victims here.

People are so desperate to avoid treating white people like brown people after 9/11. Why? Were brown Americans treated badly or something?

[Backseat Driver]

31. How do DUers on this post explain the premeditated Rhoden murders - 8 shot dead in 3 homes -

all white family members, men and women, in Pike County? Motive - custody of an out-of-wedlock 2 year old white daughter by dear daddy...Deadly misogyny?

[PatrickforB]

36. Kind of a straw man argument, don't you think?

I mean, we are talking about the cancer on the world that is white supremacy. You seem to be conflating white supremacist domestic terrorism with a mass murder over the custody of a child. While the tragedy of the Rhoden murders is horrible, we are on this thread talking about white supremacy and acts of racially motivated terrorism including mass shootings and other hate crimes.

It really is not the same thing.

[IronLionZion]

39. They were charged, tried, and found guilty of 8 counts of murder, felony conspiracy, and more

no mental illness excuses for white on white murder in that case.

But the main issue is whites don't want to be treated like brown Americans after 9/11. Because you know it's bad. You don't want it for you.

[William Seger]

40. Strange question. How do YOU explain it, and what's your point?

No offense, but I don't see enough similarity between the two cases to make any comparison at all.

[Backseat Driver]

32. How do DUers on this post explain the premeditated Rhoden murders - 8 shot dead in 3 homes -

all white family members, men and women, in Pike County? Motive - custody of an out-of-wedlock 2 year old white daughter by dear daddy...Deadly misogyny?

[Initech]

19. White supremacy, white nationalism, and religious nationalism all need to be addressed.

These are some extremely dangerous ideologies. But what's it going to take to stop them?

[housecat]

23. votes!

[miyazaki]

21. According to the Mental Health America Organization it is.

Last edited Tue Aug 29, 2023, 05:36 PM - Edit history (1)

But what the hell do they know.

[cbabe]

44. Lots of things used to be listed as a mental illness until

we wised up.

I would suggest less focus on the ‘mental illness’ statement which is him calling out the media much like mocking the standard ‘thoughts and prayers’, and ironically a media generated headline, and more focus on his ‘terrorism’ statement.

[AZLD4Candidate]

24. I've said this many times here and in life. Being an asshole is not a mental illness

Those of us with mental illness are tired of these assholes being lumped in with us. It's already bad enough with the social stigma of being considered insane, crazy, unstable, unbalanced, or "just loving drama."

[kimbutgar]

25. I hope Rep Justin Jones stays safe

He is our future and I want him to be around for a long time.

[Chi67]

27. Agreed

We need more like him. And I do not understand how it is legal for the legislature to continue to silence the Tennessee Three. It can't possibly be constitutional.

[Pacifist Patriot]

30. It's a mental health issue if...

being a hateful asshole ever makes the DSM.

I have my doubts.

Shame on those racist cucks who voted to silence truth.

[struggle4progress]

37. "Not guilty by reason of I was unconscious in the head at the time"

[malaise]

41. He is correct

Rec

[electric_blue68]

43. Maybe not, but more like a moral illness.

[Faux pas]

45. Kickin' for TRUTH

[treestar]

47. There was a mass shooting of gay people too

so that is due to the homophobia of this country? There was also a shooting aimed a Jewish people.

The relation here is more to mass shootings. They have many motives. I know people want this to be terrorism, but if there is not an organization behind it, it's not.