Mississippi’s Republican governor is making fun of people in his own state who are suffering, cracking a joke about more than 150,000 residents of Jackson, MS – an overwhelming majority of them Black – having no safe drinking water.
Last week, Gov. Tate Reeves said: “I’ve got to tell you it is a great day to be in Hattiesburg. It's also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson. I feel like I should take off my emergency management director hat and leave it in the car and take off my public works director hat and leave it in the car.”
Why is Reeves’ joke cruel and inhumane? Let us count the ways.
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Mississippi’s water treatment infrastructure was already in disrepair before a flood knocked out Jackson’s main treatment plant. That’s because the state is run by Republicans with a misinformed “small government” mentality, who refuse to acknowledge that government plays a key role in, oh, say, providing clean drinking water.
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Gov. Reeves just recently ended Mississippi’s participation in federal rental assistance – a program that would have provided vital financial help to thousands of Jackson residents who are now having trouble making ends meet as the lifeblood of their city’s economy has vanished. Reeves baselessly dismissed the program as a “socialist experiment.”
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Black residents make up more than 80% of Jackson’s population. A white governor is laughing at the suffering of a marginalized group of people who have been told again and again – especially in the South – that they are second class citizens.
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Reeves was at a groundbreaking event for a private equity firm when he disparaged the capital city and belittled the people living in it. Great that he has time for corporate investors, but it would be nice if he could spare some time to help the people of Jackson through the crisis caused by his party's negligent approach to governing.
The list goes on and on, John.
Real Mississippians are meeting the crisis head-on, checking in on one another, and distributing cases of bottled water to their neighbors, all while being laughed at by their governor.
In Georgia, we know what it’s like to have a governor actively working against the interests of the people in his state. Gov. Kemp is constantly undermining women, LGBTQ+ Georgians, and people of color throughout Georgia. The list of Republican governors making life in their states worse is as long as – well, it’s about as long as the list of Republican governors.
