On Saturday a Georgia state senator who represents the district that committed one of the most racist atrocities in American history gave a speech at an anti-Muslim hate rally. But don’t worry—from the pictures he snapped with right-wing militia groups, apparently he was just doing it for the ’gram.
The state senator is Michael Williams (no, not the guy from The Wire—although Michael K. Williams has ignored my suggestion that he officially change his name to “Omar From The Wire,” because there are some people so “black famous” that their real names don’t count anymore. BernNadette Stanis gave up all rights and privileges when she appeared in an iconic TV show. Now she’s forever “Thelma From Good Times.” Plus, “Omar From The Wire” is probably the greatest ... wait. What were we talking about again? Oh, the politician who showed up at the hate march!).
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sen. Williams showed up at one of the more than two dozen “March Against Sharia” events scheduled for Saturday to speak to the white people whose IQs are so low, they have fallen victim to the mythical “Muslims are coming to kill you” fairy tale.
After speaking to the group, Williams posed for pictures with members of the Georgia Security Force III Militia, because—according to Williams’ spokesperson—they appeared to be “pro-gun supporters.”
It is hard to deny that the “threepers” are pro-gun, especially since the group was heavily armed with automatic weapons (is that a missile launcher on the ground?). Apparently, the militia thought there was a dire need for security at a peaceful protest of about 40-50 people. (Because there are always fewer people at a white supremacist march than you’d think. We all want to believe that it’s because hate isn’t as prevalent, but it’s probably because even racists have better shit to do than to wear those hot Klansmen hoods and Nazi uniforms on a beautiful, 85-degree Saturday. Have you ever tried waving one of those giant Confederate flags? They’re heavy as fuck.)
When hate-group watchdog the Southern Poverty Law Center tweeted out a picture showing Williams posing with militia members flashing the gang sign for the III%, his spokesman, Seth Weathers—whose name made it to the championship round of the “whitest names ever” competition in 1998—responded: “We don’t know about the supposed symbolism, only that a bunch of liberal hate groups were online tweeting about it. This is the stupidest thing in the world—that we are debating whether grown men were supposedly holding their fingers the wrong way during a photo.”
Of course it’s stupid, Seth.
It’s stupid for a duly elected representative to speak about Shariah law and then snap pics with militia groups when—according to the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, “Law enforcement agencies in the United States consider anti-government violent extremists, not radicalized Muslims, to be the most severe threat of political violence that they face.”
It’s stupid to rail against the impending threat of Shariah when there has never been an incident of a municipality, county or state advocating that Shariah be made the law of the land. It’s like holding a march against dragons, unicorns and white people clapping on the beat.
It’s stupid for a state senator to commune with anti-government armed gangs who have staged multiple shootouts with law-enforcement agencies.
It’s stupid for anyone to listen to the political and religious philosophies of a hack senator who bought himself a political seat by giving white people cheap haircuts in strip malls and Walmart plazas. (Williams financed his own campaign by—and I’m not making this up—selling his chain of Sports Clips franchises.)
None of this stupidity matters because this incident won’t harm Williams. Williams won his last election by more than 30 percentage points. He represents Georgia’s 27th District, the majority of which is in Forsyth County, one of the whitest places in the country. The county is 85 percent white and is one of the few places in America where black people aren’t the second- or third-place minority. Blacks make up less than 3 percent of Forsyth County’s population.
This is because, in 1912, after two white women were raped, a Forsyth County mob lynched three men, including two teenagers, in public executions and then drove the entire black population out of the county in a “racial cleansing.”
But there is good news out of all of this: Williams might not be a state senator for long—because the pro-Donald Trump politician thinks that this political climate is the perfect time to take the next step in his career: Williams is running for governor of Georgia.
So, yeah, the idea that a Georgia lawmaker is cool with a gang who have promised to take the law into their own hands at a rally aimed at hyping up something that never happened isn’t really stupid ...
It’s scary as fuck.
“A man got to have a code.” —Omar Little, The Wire
Read more at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.