Jeremy Faison – Memphis Flyer

This is a story about nazis, the rock group Paramore, a folk singer, and the GOP members of the Tennessee State House. Bear with me. It all comes together in the end.

First, the nazis: Last Saturday afternoon, a group of 30 or so white men demonstrated on the grounds of the state capitol in Nashville. They carried nazi flags, wore face masks (naturally), and red T-shirts proclaiming that they were members of a group called “Blood Tribe.” They then walked in loose formation down Broadway, along sidewalks filled with tourists.

The march was videoed by dozens of people, including by one brave stalwart who walked alongside the group, screaming, “Cowards!! Cowards!! Show your faces!!” They didn’t because — duh — they’re cowards. That video was posted on X and went viral.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Blood Tribe members exalt Hitler as a deity, a reincarnation of the Norse god Wotan. They are “a hard-core white supremacist group, that sees themselves as the last remaining bulwark against enemies of the white race and the only path to a white ethno-state.” Blood Tribe members “emphasize hyper-masculinity,” and the group does not allow female members.

Here’s my favorite part: Once accepted into the Blood Tribe, “members take part in an initiation ceremony during which they cut themselves using the group’s ceremonial spear and then rub their blood on the shaft of the spear.” Uh huh.

Also possibly notable is the fact that the group’s first public demonstration was in March 2023, when they protested a drag queen story hour in Wadsworth, Ohio. According to news reports, attendees “wore matching red sweaters, waved swastika flags, and held a banner that read, ‘There will be blood.’” No word on whether their shoes matched their outfits.

But there’s really nothing funny about nazis, no matter how un-self-aware they are, unless hyper-toxic masculinity and ignorant racism amuse you. These guys are evil thugs, even if they are afraid to show their faces.

Among many others catching the nazis on phone video last Saturday were state Representative Justin Pearson of Memphis and state Representative Justin Jones of Nashville — the two Black members of the “Tennessee Three” who were excommunicated from the state legislature last summer for advocating for gun reform in the House chamber. Pearson and Jones (who were reinstated by special elections) both denounced the Blood Tribe march and referenced their GOP colleagues in their X posts about the group.

Jones said: “This is exactly what my Republican colleagues’ hate speech is fostering and inviting.” Pearson said: “Tragically, [the Blood Tribe’s] views are shared by many who I serve alongside on the other side of the aisle.”

Too harsh, you say? This is where Paramore and the folk singer come in. The Nashville-based rock band won Grammys for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance. The folksinger, also from Nashville, was Allison Russell, who won a Grammy for Best American Roots Performance. Jones made what is typically a perfunctory consent calendar resolution — noncontroversial motions that the legislature passes en masse — to honor both artists for their awards.

But, oops. Nope. GOP House Speaker Jeremy Faison removed the resolution honoring Russell from the consent calendar, saying he had been approached by other GOP members with questions about Russell “which made it appropriate for us to press pause on that particular resolution.”

What questions? He couldn’t say. Here’s a guess: Russell is Black. The members of Paramore are white. The GOP reps decided to “press pause” on the Black woman because as they have shown time and time again, they are country-ass, cousin-humpin’ racist tools. In a real democracy, you could put that resolution on the consent calendar and take it to the bank.

Too harsh? I’m pretty sure Faison doesn’t like it when people bring up the 2022 incident in which he ran onto a basketball court during a game (between two “Christian” academies, no less) and attempted to “de-pants a referee” because he disagreed with a call. Probably should have pressed pause on that move, Jeremy.

To their credit, the lead singer of Paramore said the group would decline the “honor” from the legislature unless Russell was also honored. Oh, and if you’re still wondering about that “press pause” business? Last year, Russell criticized GOP legislators for enacting legislation targeting LGBTQ rights and banning drag shows.

Huh. How did we nazi that one coming?

In 2005, I wrote a column about the movie Brokeback Mountain, the Ang Lee film that marked a sea change in how gay relationships were portrayed in mainstream American cinema. Two Wyoming cowboys, of all people, were portrayed as lovers, tortured by having to keep their relationship a secret.

Often, life really does imitate art, but, in this case, I think it was the other way around: Brokeback Mountain was reflecting a change in attitudes about homosexuality that was happening in the real world.

In 2011, the U.S. military policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was finally repealed, which allowed gay Americans to openly serve in the armed forces. The world didn’t end. Nor did it end a few years later, when legal gay marriage became the law of the land.

We’re seeing something of the same evolution happening with our attitudes toward marijuana. Memphis and Nashville, the blue spots in red Tennessee, both passed legislation in the past month that reduces penalties for simple possession of less than a half-ounce of pot. As this week’s cover story points out, the measure was passed more as a matter of criminal justice than of decriminalization, the idea being to reduce the number of young African-American men being funneled into the justice system for what amounts to a victimless crime. But even so, the official legal attitude toward marijuana as a dangerous drug has softened.

And The Commercial Appeal this week published a story about a Tennessee lawmaker, Jeremy Faison — a Republican lawmaker, at that — who journeyed to Colorado to see the effects of medical marijuana legalization. He visited several Tennessee families who’d moved there in order to be able to obtain marijuana to treat their children’s illnesses. He said he wanted to find out “why we are losing Tennesseans to Colorado.”

It is expected that the Tennessee legislature will take up the issue of medical marijuana again in 2017. Whether Faison can convince enough of his fellow Republicans to move toward a more temperate policy remains to be seen. But if polling numbers are to be believed, Tennessee’s way forward may be influenced by our neighboring state to the west, Arkansas, which has not one, but two, medical marijuana measures on the November 8th ballot. If both measures pass, the one with the most votes becomes law.

It’s possible, of course, that neither will pass, but a recent poll showed 80 percent of Arkansans favored allowing the use of medical marijuana for treatment of illness. The number of conditions (40 or so) that will be allowed to be treated by marijuana under the measures on the Arkansas ballot range from cancer to migraines to restless-leg syndrome. Pot will be sold and regulated through licensed dispensaries and will be available only to Arkansas residents.

Yeah, sure. Just like in California.

Let’s be real. When medical marijuana is legalized in a state, lots of people quickly develop conditions that require treatment with weed. And lots of folks travel to those states to obtain marijuana, especially from neighboring states. That’s because thousands of fine, upstanding people smoke pot, and if they can figure out a way to get it that doesn’t involve the risk of arrest or having to meet with some clandestine illegal drug dealer, they’ll do it.

If Memphians will risk the long arm of the law to buy illegal fireworks just across the bridge, they’ll do the same to get a little herb. Twenty-seven states (and counting) now allow either medical or recreational marijuana to be sold. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the map of states that have loosened pot laws is comprised mostly of blue states. Change on this issue is coming slower in the South. But it’s coming, and it’s closer than you may think. In fact, it may soon be just a bridge away.