OP-ED: GOP REP. MIKE SPARKS Distorts MLK’s Words to Justify A Racist, Oppressive Agenda
Mike Sparks is facing an extremely difficult election this cycle. Brandon Thomas is a young, black man with a progressive platform and widespread support, particularly among young people. Heâs energetic and has put in the work to make personal connections with a huge swath of the districtâs electorate.
Sparks, by contrast, has spent much of his time defending the bust of KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forest in the stateâs capital and claiming to the Tennessee Holler that he doesnât know why the civil war was fought.
WATCH: âWas the civil war fought over slavery?â
REP. MIKE SPARKS: âI havenât really studied it- we all need to study our history đ€- thereâs different context.â
He spoke FOR KEEPING THE KKK GRAND WIZARD BUST today.@Brandon4Tenn (a black man) is running against him in SMYRNA. pic.twitter.com/f3oIHHZxLX
â The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) July 9, 2020
He even took some time out of this busy schedule to pen an Op-Ed for the Murfreesboro Voice in defense of Trump loving Ex-Democrat John DeBerry.
In it, he claims that DeBerry is some kind of victim for having been ousted from the Democratic ticket over his litany of absurd statements and positions. This is, of course, absurd, as the Democratic Party is a political organization with every right to decide not to lend its apparatus to a candidate who does not fit with their values. Unlike Sparksâ Republican Party, which seems to jump frantically from one ideology to another in pursuit of power, the Democrats seem to have at least some standards.
I donât find myself overly disturbed by Sparksâ defense of DeBerry, however. This is run-of-the-mill culture war nonsense that Republicans always gin up a month or so before an election to drive out their base. Itâs ridiculous, but it comes with the territory. I do take issue with Sparksâ appropriation of the language of resistance, which he does so brazenly that I can only assume that he is as ignorant of its context as he is of our own stateâs Confederate history.
Welcome to part 2 of TNâs hottest new game show: âDoes Rep. Sparks Know Basic History?â Today, the answer is, once again, no! We interviewed his opponent @Brandon4Tenn on the Holler Facebook today. pic.twitter.com/pNIAXAGjbo
â Murfreesboro Holler (@TheBoroHoller) August 10, 2020
The absurdity begins as he mentions the iconic anti-fascist poem by German pastor Martin Niemoller, âFirst They CameâŠâ Sparks doesnât actually quote any lines from the poem, likely because the very first line of the poemâs most famous form is âfirst they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out- because I was not a socialist.â
This isnât a poem about a wealthy, longtime state representative being removed from his party for supporting a fascist president. Itâs about the ways in which authoritarian governments divide their population and attack those in the political, religious, and racial minorities while assuring all others that theyâre safe as part of the majority.
Itâs a critique of the âUs versus Themâ mentality.
Does this sound familiar? One example might be an authoritarian president building a campaign on the claim that a large portion of Mexican immigrants are dangerous criminals, or banning a religious minority from entering the country.
Another example could be a clownish Governor and entrenched supermajority passing laws that target protestors and strip them of their voting rights for the crime of daring to speak up in defense of black life. I wonder what Mike Sparks would have to say about events like that?
As Tennessee lawmakers vote on extreme bill to criminalize protests, Iâve been thinking about this photo of a young John Lewis protesting here in Nashville. The Tennessee Capitol in the background. It reminds me that weâre on the right side of history and canât stop. #GoodTrouble pic.twitter.com/hhm13vn2zP
â Justin Jones (@brotherjones_) August 12, 2020
Itâs the excerpt from Martin Luther Kingâs âLetter from Birmingham Jail,â which is the most egregious, however. Unlike the poem, of which one could give Sparks the benefit of assuming ignorance, he adamantly claims to have read this document, and yet his understanding of it seems to be on the level of someone who skimmed Dr. Kingâs work for quotes that could be construed to agree with him.
He goes with the oft-quoted warning that âIn the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.â This is a remarkably convenient line for Sparks, and is so removed from its context as to be nearly meaningless. However, to find this line, he was forced to sift through a mountain of criticism for laws that look identical to the anti-protest bill that he just voted for!
For an obvious example, Dr. King says that âthere is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.â
This speaks to a greater tendency among the right to quote Dr. King while categorically refusing his key claim that all actions must be viewed within the context which has given rise to them. This is what Dr. King meant when he said that âriots are the language of the unheard,â and it is absolutely central to his brilliant understanding of opposition to hierarchy and oppression.
While Brandon Thomas travels the district meeting constituents and accepting endorsements from workers unions and activist groups, Mike Sparks spends his time defending the racist authoritarians of the past like Nathan Bedford Forest, and the racist authoritarians of today like Donald Trump.
He is a voice for the powerful against the powerless, an advocate for order at the expense of justice.
He is what Dr. King would call âthe white moderate, who is more devoted to âorderâ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: âI agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.ââ
No man who votes to protect a bust honoring a KKK Grand Wizard or strip voting rights from peaceful protestors for âcampingâ should be using the words of Dr. King or Pastor Niemoller. We cannot allow the defenders of power and authoritarianism to co-opt the language of true, profound resistance to such horrors.
We should learn from our history, so that men like Mike Sparks arenât able to distort it for their own agenda.
Brendon Donoho is a student at MTSU, president of MTSU Young Democratic Socialists of America, and a resident of Rutherford County