COMMENTARY: Black and Asian, Oakland Native Justin Jones Embodies Unity in Tennessee Statehouse Showdown
By Emil Guillermo
Since it happened over the Easter holiday, the parallel cannot be overlooked. Resurrection was in the air. Just five days after his political death, Oakland native Justin Jones, the newly minted voice of the voiceless, an advocate for an assault-weapons ban and an overall generational change for a more inclusive democracy in America, was not just back in the Tennessee state house–to all the world, he was also Black.
Again.
The Associated Press headline was pretty unequivocal.
“Black lawmaker who was expelled reinstated to Tennessee seat,” blared the online Yahoo news site.
The lede was even clearer.
“One of two Black Democrats who were expelled last week from the GOP-led Tennessee House was reinstated Monday after Nashville’s governing council voted to send him straight back to the Legislature.”
Great, but only partially right.
Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News gave it a crack, but alas, he too fell short.
In “that political drama in Tennessee late today,” the anchor declared on the network’s evening news: “The Nashville Council voted to reinstate one of the Black state lawmakers expelled last week over protests….”
All that was great. But when it comes to Jones’ race, Lester was only half correct.
Jones isn’t just Black. He’s also Filipino by his mother’s side. He’s Justin Shea Bautista Jones, who grew up in Oakland and in the East Bay. And he fully embraces his Filipino-ness. As mentioned in his campaign collateral, Jones is as proud of his Filipino heritage as he is of his African side.
He’s a mixed-race Asian American.
No big deal? I’m making it one.
We all should see Jones’ Asian American Filipino side.
If Jones and his fellow expelled legislator, Justin Pearson, are all about inclusion, youth, and bringing in all the people from the margins to be seen and heard, then why just outright ignore Jones’ Filipino/Asian American side?
Why not mention that Jones represents even more cultural diversity than anyone thinks?
The Washington Post got it right last Thursday, when, in one of the first stories about the Tennessee expulsions, the paper referred to Jones as being of Black and Filipino heritage.
Even on MSNBC, Alex Wagner, herself part Burmese descent, acknowledged Jones fully as Black and Filipino. Other media outlets, not so much. Of course, Asian/Filipino media did.
Acknowledging Jones’ mixed race specifically was 100% accurate.
But by the time Jones was reinstated, AP and others simply ignored Jones’ mother’s blood and dropped expressing America’s real diversity.
We’ve seen it before. Tiger Wood’s mom is Thai, and he made a big deal about his Asian side when he was younger. But his term to accurately describe himself, “Cablanasian,” didn’t stick, and most everyone just found it easier to backslide to Black.
Vice President Kamala Harris has always seemed more partial to her African American side. During her run for president, it was like she kept her Asian-ness (her mother is an Indian immigrant) as a handy aside. And then she made history, and who could ignore that she was Black and South Asian, the highest-ranking Black and Asian American woman in our democracy’s history?
Still, most media references have gone back to ignoring it. Perhaps it’s assumed everyone knows Harris is of mixed race, or editors feel when it comes to Harris, her race is so obvious it’s irrelevant?
But it’s not irrelevant.
It helps to counter the ongoing battle in our country over racial identity.
With the GOP waging a culture war on denying our country’s racial history, it’s become imperative for the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) community to proudly declare our heritage and race, especially when it comes to newsmakers whose cultural backgrounds are factual identifiers that help people understand the new America.
A name and an age are usually the two most important facts about a person journalistically. But race should be right up there too.
Jones can’t just be Black. Not when his physical presence (his hair, skin, size) clues us in that he’s also representing another ethnic minority as well, Asian American Filipinos.
One’s race should be as important as people boldly declaring their pronouns. (Yes, I’m a he/him, though I feel solidarity with the they/thems.)
But that’s gender grammar. Race is about blood, fluid and undeniable. But too often ignored.
I’ve always said when we have a love interest in one another, maybe we’ll see an end to the racism. According to the numbers, it’s slowly happening.
In 2020, the percentage of mixed-race people was up from 2.9% of the population or 9 million people in 2010, to nearly four times that at 10.2% or 33.8 million people.
With so many mixed-race American people according to the last Census, we have to stop being lazy, as in defaulting to Black when someone is really Black with Asian, or Latinx, or Caucasian, or whatever.
Just get it right, as in the case of Justin Jones. Make his ‘Lola’ (Granny) Harriet from the Philippines happy.
Don’t ignore his Asian American Filipino side. And don’t let the news media get away with saying, “the Black lawmaker.”
Make them say it all. In the overt language of diversity, Jones is a Black Asian American Filipino.
If we’re all slinging pronouns, declare your race too, fully and not in part.
Let us all be seen.
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him on www.amok.com
