“Plantation Politics”: How White Mississippi Lawmakers Want to Seize Power in Majority-Black Jackson

Mississippi’s Republican majority within the state Legislature has put forth a slew of payments in current months to place the majority-Black capital of Jackson beneath a white-led superstructure. Below the proposed payments, the Capitol Police can be expanded and given better authority over a lot of Jackson with out being accountable to native leaders or residents, and a separate court docket system can be arrange within the metropolis, composed of judges appointed straight by white state officers. This comes after Jackson suffered plenty of water crises in recent times stemming from systematic disinvestment by the state, and after the federal authorities permitted $600 million late final 12 months to deal with town’s infrastructure issues. “These payments are an assault on Black management, a technique to seize energy of a majority-Black metropolis which can’t be seized democratically by an election,” says Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. We additionally converse with group activist Makani Themba, who described the state’s plans in a current piece for The Nation as “Apartheid American-Fashion.”