Don’t Boycott Tennessee — Support the Communities Under Attack

First, let me say: I get it.

The impulse of many progressive-minded folks to “Boycott Tennessee” is understandable, given the vicious assaults on democracy and dignity that have become the hallmarks of the state’s GOP-dominated legislature.

From their bigoted efforts against drag performance and gender-affirming care to their short-lived attempt to rename part of John Lewis Way for Donald Trump to the latest outrage — expelling two Black lawmakers for vocally supporting a youth-led gun reform protest after a horrific school shooting in Nashville — reactionaries are undoubtedly worthy of the vitriol aimed their way.

But a boycott, especially by potential tourists or conventioneers, would not only fail to help the fight against these far-right forces. It would make that fight infinitely more difficult.

Those (mostly) exurban and rural GOP reps who voted to expel Justin Jones and Justin Pearson for demonstrating solidarity with the students calling for new gun laws won’t be moved by a boycott. Nobody comes to Tennessee to visit the places they’re from anyway. Boycotting a walking tour of a grain silo, bail of hay, or Earl’s General Store and Tackle Shop won’t do much.

Refusing to eat at one of the many Sonics or Olive Gardens that dot their suburban commercial strips won’t cause them much concern either. Mega-churches are always letting out, the faithful are hungry, and Never-Ending-Pasta-and-Breadsticks are the Lord’s work, so withholding your personal commerce is unlikely to be the deal breaker you might hope it to be.

By contrast, the areas that tourists do come to — and which could, as a result, be boycotted by individual vacationers or large conventions — are Nashville and Memphis: the cities represented, in part, by Jones and Pearson.

They are the very cities those Republican autocrats are already trying to starve of revenue in budgetary decisions every day they sit in session.

For progressives to refuse to come here only gives them what they want: fewer liberals, fewer LGBTQ-friendly folks, and fewer people who insist that Black lives matter. They would be happy to have fewer of these and more MAGA tourists. They actively seek that. They would love to make Nashville a Hee-Haw Hollywood on the Cumberland.

And if those committed to social justice and equity stay away, that’s what we’ll end up with.

This would be a slap in the face to those of us who’ve lived here most or all of our lives, speaking out against people like this. It would be an insult to the prodigious history of civil rights and freedom fighters that have come out of places like Nashville and Memphis.

And it would be a giant middle finger to the incredible activists on the ground fighting for justice today.

If you want to do something about what’s happening here, come and support them. Bring every progressive organizational convention here, making sure to connect with local activists in-between official convention business.

Get your convention and its corporate sponsors to host drag shows on every corner, in every park, and in clubs throughout the town. Dare the police to enforce the new laws intended to prevent such a thing.

As for individual tourists, starting with Nashville:

Come and connect with The Equity Alliance: a grassroots organization founded by amazing Black women who are leading the struggle for social and political justice in our state.

Or Stand Up Nashville!, which is taking on systemic racism, gentrification, political disenfranchisement, and state legislative attempts to interfere in local politics in cities like ours.

Or Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), or the Nashville Justice League.

Support the efforts of Just Us at the Nashville Oasis Center, which offers critical services and empowering community space for local LGBTQ+ youth who are looking to thrive in a place that is so often hostile to their very existence.

Contribute time or money to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, as they fight for a more pluralistic and inclusive state with justice for all.

And when you’re here, don’t forget to learn more about the rich history of Black-led resistance to oppression in our town.

Check out the Civil Rights Room at the downtown library. Then visit the site of the historic student sit-ins a few blocks away. And while you’re there maybe protest outside yourself, seeing as how the site has been purchased by a right-wing troll who turned it into a burlesque theatre and site for screening Candace Owens’s anti-Black propaganda film.

Then head to the Jefferson Street Sound Museum, the National Museum of African American Music, and the Aaron Douglas and Carl Van Vechten art galleries at Fisk University.

And take a tour with United Street Tours to learn the history of Black culture and community in Nashville and how that history connects to the present.

In West Tennessee, don’t boycott but visit Memphis. Visit the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was murdered. Stand on this hallowed ground in a space that reminds you of the many who have come before, showing us the path towards a more just future.

Support the vital work of criminal justice reformers like the folks at Just City and Micah Memphis.

Or team up with one of the programs of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

In other words, Tennessee needs you. Bring your bodies, bring your money, bring your energy. Turn out and turn up for justice and equity, and human dignity.

Stand side-by-side with those young people who are leading the charge against gun violence.

In 1964, civil rights activists didn’t boycott Mississippi, even though it was the fulcrum of racist oppression in America. They flooded it with organizers and activists during Freedom Summer. They set up freedom schools, registered voters, and honed their activism for the fight ahead.

What we need now is more of that. We need a new Freedom Summer (and fall, and winter, and spring).

They call us the Volunteer State, and while social justice activism might not be what they had in mind, it’s most certainly what we should give them.

As the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee put it:

Come, let us build a new world together.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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