Alabama’s Latest Lost Cause: Rep. Will Dismukes
12:51 PM; Today 9:52 AM
By Kyle Whitmire | kwhitmire@al.com
This is an opinion column.
A lot of people seemed surprised by all that state Rep. Will Dismukes did this week, but they shouldn’t be. To know who Dismukes is, you don’t even have to get out of your car. Heck, you don’t even have to drive the speed limit.
By the interstate north of Montgomery flies a Confederate battle flag. If you’ve driven by it, you’ve seen it. I’m awful at estimating spaces and sizes, especially at a distance, but I’d guess it’s slightly more square feet than my first apartment and somewhat smaller than the house I live in now. As flags go, it’s big. And it’s a defiant middle finger to anyone hoping to make Alabama better.
That flag sends a message to any tourist on their way to the beach: This state is unreconstructed, and if you don’t like it, then keep moving. It says to business developers, we can find warm bodies for your new factory but if you’re looking for a new corporate headquarters, you might want to look someplace else. That flag sends the same message it’s always sent: We don’t give a flip for people who aren’t like us and “us” means “white.”
It was hoisted there, on a pole tall enough to see a mile or more away, by the Sons of Confederate Veterans — a group to which Dismukes proudly and openly belongs.
This was not a secret when the GOP let him on their ticket. He didn’t hide it when voters chose him to represent them in the Alabama House. Dismukes has put all this stuff on his Facebook page. In TV interviews, he’s eschewed the customary American flag lapel pin for a Confederate one. On Confederate Flag Day, he dressed up in what a Boy Scout uniform might have looked like had the South won the war. He can repeat the lies of the Lost Cause chapter and verse — because he’s a Southern Baptist minister, too, and also his SCV chapter’s chaplain.
But most Alabamians understand that flag is only a part of this state’s story. And few Alabamians have epitomized the other half better than John Lewis, the civil rights legend whom the state honored this past week after his passing. It was when these two men got juxtaposed in the news that it became undeniable just how awful Dismukes has been.
As Rep. John Lewis’ casket moved about the state from one memorial service to another, Dismukes attended another sort of event near Selma at a place called Fort Dixie. There, he and others celebrated the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader, a brutal Confederate general, and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
I guess having official state holidays for Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis wasn’t good enough.
Fort Dixie is not an actual military fort, but the property of Butch and Pat Godwin. Pat Godwin is a longtime Confederate apologist who’s had some interesting things to say about her home city and the march that happened there in 1965.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Godwin has called Selma “Zimbabwe on de Alabamy.” She has fought to prevent the Alabama Historical Commission acknowledging the 1965 voting rights march, which she has called a drunken “Mother of all Orgies.” And in emails, she has referred to herself as “Wizardess.”
Godwin has also fought, unsuccessfully, to display a large bust of Forrest on public property, and once a year, Godwin hosts a birthday celebration remembering Forrest. At the event according to announcements, her organization, Friends of Forrest, gives away a small cast bust of the KKK founder as a door prize and has offered, among other food options, a “Pickaninny Freeze Watermelon Stand.”
I had to Google that last thing to understand how racist it was.
That is where, on Saturday — while mourners held services in Lewis’ hometown of Troy — Dismukes gave a prayer and a speech.
And on Facebook Sunday — as the caisson carried Lewis’s body one last time across the Edmund Pettus Bridge — Dismukes posted pictures of his appearance at the other event, speaking at a podium in front of a portrait of Forrest and behind the four flags of the Confederacy.
As Alabama honored the late Rep. John Lewis, state Rep. Will Dismukes attended a birthday party for the founder of the KKK.
“Had a great time at Fort Dixie speaking and giving the invocation for the Nathan Bedford Forrest annual birthday celebration,” Dismukes said. “Always a great time and some sure enough good eating!!”
At least four GOP state lawmakers publicly chastised Dismukes after Dismukes failed to show adequate contrition in a statement Monday morning, Alabama Republican Chairwoman Terry Lathan rebuked him further and invited his constituents to decide his future.
“It is one thing to honor one’s Southern heritage, however, it is completely another issue to specifically commemorate the leader of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable actions and atrocities toward African-Americans,” Lathan said.
Likewise, Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said Dismukes’ constituents would have to decide what to do with them.
Goodness knows what an Alabama Republican has to do to get kicked out of the House caucus. Or the party. Whatever that takes, we haven’t seen it yet, and we’ve seen a lot.
At least the very least, Dismukes’ career is likely stunted. Earlier this year, he explored running for Congress, to replace Rep. Martha Roby, before endorsing another candidate. He had higher ambitions. But now his career likely ends here.
Here’s the thing of which I feel certain: Lewis would have us feel pity or even love for Dismukes. A lifelong believer in nonviolence and redemptive suffering, Lewis believed racists were victims of their racism, too.
I’m trying to see it. I’m trying to feel it. But I’m struggling.
There’s a joke I first heard told by the novelist David Foster Wallace, about two young fish swimming through the ocean. As they swim, they pass a much larger, older fish.
“Morning, boys! How’s the water?” the big fish says.
The two young fish keep swimming. And after they’ve put some distance between themselves and the big fish, one turns to the other nervously and asks …
“What the hell is water?”
One of the peculiar traits of racists is how rarely they understand their racism, or how incapable they are to understand that racism is even real.
Dismukes still doesn’t.
“We no longer drink from separate water fountains, and we no longer have segregated schools,” Dismukes told WSFA Monday. “You know there’s abundant work opportunities for all colors, there’s abundant scholarship opportunities for all colors. So what are you asking that needs to be racially reconciled?”
Even now, Dismukes can’t see it because he’s been surrounded by it all his life.
Racism is the water he swims in.
And it’s in that water he’ll drown.
And there, by the shore, will fly that damned flag marking the end of another Lost Cause.
Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.
By Kyle Whitmire | kwhitmire@al.com
This is an opinion column.
A lot of people seemed surprised by all that state Rep. Will Dismukes did this week, but they shouldn’t be. To know who Dismukes is, you don’t even have to get out of your car. Heck, you don’t even have to drive the speed limit.
By the interstate north of Montgomery flies a Confederate battle flag. If you’ve driven by it, you’ve seen it. I’m awful at estimating spaces and sizes, especially at a distance, but I’d guess it’s slightly more square feet than my first apartment and somewhat smaller than the house I live in now. As flags go, it’s big. And it’s a defiant middle finger to anyone hoping to make Alabama better.
That flag sends a message to any tourist on their way to the beach: This state is unreconstructed, and if you don’t like it, then keep moving. It says to business developers, we can find warm bodies for your new factory but if you’re looking for a new corporate headquarters, you might want to look someplace else. That flag sends the same message it’s always sent: We don’t give a flip for people who aren’t like us and “us” means “white.”
It was hoisted there, on a pole tall enough to see a mile or more away, by the Sons of Confederate Veterans — a group to which Dismukes proudly and openly belongs.
This was not a secret when the GOP let him on their ticket. He didn’t hide it when voters chose him to represent them in the Alabama House. Dismukes has put all this stuff on his Facebook page. In TV interviews, he’s eschewed the customary American flag lapel pin for a Confederate one. On Confederate Flag Day, he dressed up in what a Boy Scout uniform might have looked like had the South won the war. He can repeat the lies of the Lost Cause chapter and verse — because he’s a Southern Baptist minister, too, and also his SCV chapter’s chaplain.
But most Alabamians understand that flag is only a part of this state’s story. And few Alabamians have epitomized the other half better than John Lewis, the civil rights legend whom the state honored this past week after his passing. It was when these two men got juxtaposed in the news that it became undeniable just how awful Dismukes has been.
As Rep. John Lewis’ casket moved about the state from one memorial service to another, Dismukes attended another sort of event near Selma at a place called Fort Dixie. There, he and others celebrated the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader, a brutal Confederate general, and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
I guess having official state holidays for Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis wasn’t good enough.
Fort Dixie is not an actual military fort, but the property of Butch and Pat Godwin. Pat Godwin is a longtime Confederate apologist who’s had some interesting things to say about her home city and the march that happened there in 1965.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Godwin has called Selma “Zimbabwe on de Alabamy.” She has fought to prevent the Alabama Historical Commission acknowledging the 1965 voting rights march, which she has called a drunken “Mother of all Orgies.” And in emails, she has referred to herself as “Wizardess.”
Godwin has also fought, unsuccessfully, to display a large bust of Forrest on public property, and once a year, Godwin hosts a birthday celebration remembering Forrest. At the event according to announcements, her organization, Friends of Forrest, gives away a small cast bust of the KKK founder as a door prize and has offered, among other food options, a “Pickaninny Freeze Watermelon Stand.”
I had to Google that last thing to understand how racist it was.
That is where, on Saturday — while mourners held services in Lewis’ hometown of Troy — Dismukes gave a prayer and a speech.
And on Facebook Sunday — as the caisson carried Lewis’s body one last time across the Edmund Pettus Bridge — Dismukes posted pictures of his appearance at the other event, speaking at a podium in front of a portrait of Forrest and behind the four flags of the Confederacy.
As Alabama honored the late Rep. John Lewis, state Rep. Will Dismukes attended a birthday party for the founder of the KKK.
“Had a great time at Fort Dixie speaking and giving the invocation for the Nathan Bedford Forrest annual birthday celebration,” Dismukes said. “Always a great time and some sure enough good eating!!”
At least four GOP state lawmakers publicly chastised Dismukes after Dismukes failed to show adequate contrition in a statement Monday morning, Alabama Republican Chairwoman Terry Lathan rebuked him further and invited his constituents to decide his future.
“It is one thing to honor one’s Southern heritage, however, it is completely another issue to specifically commemorate the leader of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable actions and atrocities toward African-Americans,” Lathan said.
Likewise, Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said Dismukes’ constituents would have to decide what to do with them.
Goodness knows what an Alabama Republican has to do to get kicked out of the House caucus. Or the party. Whatever that takes, we haven’t seen it yet, and we’ve seen a lot.
At least the very least, Dismukes’ career is likely stunted. Earlier this year, he explored running for Congress, to replace Rep. Martha Roby, before endorsing another candidate. He had higher ambitions. But now his career likely ends here.
Here’s the thing of which I feel certain: Lewis would have us feel pity or even love for Dismukes. A lifelong believer in nonviolence and redemptive suffering, Lewis believed racists were victims of their racism, too.
I’m trying to see it. I’m trying to feel it. But I’m struggling.
There’s a joke I first heard told by the novelist David Foster Wallace, about two young fish swimming through the ocean. As they swim, they pass a much larger, older fish.
“Morning, boys! How’s the water?” the big fish says.
The two young fish keep swimming. And after they’ve put some distance between themselves and the big fish, one turns to the other nervously and asks …
“What the hell is water?”
One of the peculiar traits of racists is how rarely they understand their racism, or how incapable they are to understand that racism is even real.
Dismukes still doesn’t.
“We no longer drink from separate water fountains, and we no longer have segregated schools,” Dismukes told WSFA Monday. “You know there’s abundant work opportunities for all colors, there’s abundant scholarship opportunities for all colors. So what are you asking that needs to be racially reconciled?”
Even now, Dismukes can’t see it because he’s been surrounded by it all his life.
Racism is the water he swims in.
And it’s in that water he’ll drown.
And there, by the shore, will fly that damned flag marking the end of another Lost Cause.
Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.
No comments:
Post a Comment