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We all know that when it comes to elections, Republicans don’t play fair. They’ve turned thoroughly debunked “stop the steal” propaganda into baseless reasoning to change voter laws, and if that isn’t enough, they can always redistrict the congressional maps in red states to give Democrats less voting power. Of course, what they also end up doing, whether intentionally or unintentionally (but likely intentionally), is diluting the voting power of Black people.
In states like Florida, the intent to sweep Black voting power under the rug of white supremacy is clear. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said blatantly multiple times that he’s seeking to redistrict Florida’s congressional map to make it “race-neutral,” knowing it only affects areas where the populations are largely Black people and people of color, not where the non-race-neutral areas are predominately white.
In Georgia, where the congressional map has already been recently rearranged (likely because it went blue in 2020), at least two Black communities are facing the very real possibility of being represented by none other than the queen white nationalist MAGA mammy herself, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
If you’re a Peach State resident, you might be aware that the suburban communities in Powder Springs and Austell, Ga. are Black AF. According to the New York Times, shops and restaurants in Powder Springs are owned almost entirely by Black people. The city also elected its first Black mayor in 2015 and voted for Joe Biden by 14 percentage points in Cobb County, which used to be Republican-controlled.
From the Times:
There is one other big change: Powder Springs, a majority Black city, may soon be represented in Congress by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
That development, the result of new district maps drawn by Georgia state legislators, was part of a Republican drive to blunt Democrats’ power. But for residents, the prospect of Powder Springs and another predominantly Black suburb, Austell, being represented by perhaps the most far-right Republican in Congress is raising questions that go beyond partisan politics. Some say they have little trust that Ms. Greene will pay them the same attention and respect that she gives to her white, Republican constituents and fear their voice in Congress won’t speak for them.
Whaaah? You mean to tell me Black people don’t feel they’ll be appropriately represented by a Klanny nanny who referred to Black people as “slaves” to the Democratic party, compared Black Lives Matter to the KKK, claimed white Jan. 6 Capitol riot suspects were being discriminated against in jail “because of the color of their skin” and denounced the celebration of Kwanza? You don’t say.
“It’s about having someone that’s going to take your phone calls, who’s going to work on your behalf, who’s going to care what happens to your children, who is going to care about making sure you get to your job,” State Rep. David Wilkerson, a Black Democrat who represents Powder Springs and Austell, said, according to the Times. “That’s what people are looking for.”
“Marjorie Taylor Greene represents the antithesis of what we believe,” said Robert Richards, a former Army pilot, and current Powder Springs resident. “Her rhetoric, her demeanor, her discourse in Congress, her discourse, quite frankly, as an American, is just something that is just reprehensible.”
The crazy thing is even Greene said she was against the change in November. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she was mad at the redistricting because it made the 14th Congressional District less Republican and she called it a “fool’s errand that was led by power-obsessed state legislators.” She said lawmakers “should have fortified G.O.P. districts for the long term instead.”
But since Greene has basically made an entire political career out of not knowing what she’s talking about, she doesn’t understand that Powder Springs and Austell have a combined population of less than 25,000 making it a small pond of blue in a vast sea of red. Before the change, that voting power was part of the blue wave that fell over Georgia in 2020. Now it’s a relatively small collection of Black votes being swallowed up into a largely white and conservative district where they’ll likely be rendered pointless.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Greene is still facing legal efforts by Georgia voters to disqualify her from reelection as she’s been accused of aiding the Jan. 6, whiney whites riot at the U.S. Capitol. And last year, she was stripped of her committee assignments because she’s a whole bigot, which has limited her purpose as a legislator to proposing bills that have nothing to do with her district and everything to do with promoting right-wing nonsense like the “Fire Fauci Act” and a reasonless resolution to impeach President Biden. She also has bragged about blocking Democrat legislation just by virtue of it being Democrat legislation.
What the hell do the residents of Powder Springs and Austell need with a representative like her when, for more than a decade, they had Rep. David Scott, a Black Democratic legislator with an actual track record for speaking out on issues Black people care about?
Basically, these Black residents want what millions of us across America want—for MTG to go TF away.
SEE ALSO:
The GOP Is Finally Realizing It Has A Marjorie Taylor Greene Problem
