{"id":320248,"date":"2026-05-17T17:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T17:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/320248\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T17:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T17:57:13","slug":"opinion-the-fire-of-oaklands-justin-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/320248\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: The Fire of Oakland\u2019s Justin Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emil Amok Guillermo<\/p>\n

You may know Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville).\n<\/p>\n

He grew up in Oakland and the East Bay. His mother is Filipino. You can tell by his full name Justin Shea Bautista Jones.\n<\/p>\n

His father is African American.\n<\/p>\n

He is fighting for all of us.\n<\/p>\n

Jones made headlines three years ago when he was one of a pair of Justins. Along with fellow State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), he fought their removal from the state house in Tennessee and won reinstatement.\n<\/p>\n

Now, Pearson is running for Congress and Jones is still fighting for all of us.\n<\/p>\n

The recent 6-3 Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in drawing congressional districts marks a major turning point in U.S. history.\n<\/p>\n

The decision took away the Voting Rights Act\u2019s power to assure minority voices were both heard and represented.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is this new Jim Crow system in which Black and Brown communities are without voice in our political process,\u201d he told Fredricka Whitfield on CNN last weekend.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the nation. If they come for one of us, they\u2019re coming for all of us, and some of my message to America is that the South is the front line of democracy,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey are dismantling multi-racial democracy here in the South, in states like Tennessee and Louisiana. But they aren\u2019t going to stop here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SUV<\/a>TrendingSUV Rear Seats: Comfort for Everyone, Even Grandkids! #shorts<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Jones said we have to start paying attention to the South, and start helping them fight back there,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear that this terror, this type of system they\u2019re enacting, are the same systems my grandparents told me about who grew up in Tennessee, a system where people like me couldn\u2019t even be in political office. That\u2019s the time they\u2019re bringing us back to and I\u2019m not sounding the alarm to be alarmist. But I am sounding it because we\u2019ve seen this before in our history.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Jones talked about Reconstruction and about what happened between the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1960s, when there was no Black political representation.\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rebellion to keep our democracy going forward, he said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cStand with us and help us fight back against this extremist power grab \u2014 this racist power grab against our vision of a multi-racial democracy,\u201d Jones added.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is a litigation strategy, it\u2019s important to maintain what he called a \u201cmovement strategy\u201d that leads to the largest voter mobilization and registration that has ever been seen in the South,\u201d he encouraged.\n<\/p>\n

In 2026.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTennessee is an oppressed state,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s a state where one in five Black voters can\u2019t vote because of felony disenfranchisement. It is where you can use a gun permit to vote, but you can\u2019t use a student ID card to vote.\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Asian American African American voice of Justin Jones.\n<\/p>\n

Read his words for inspiration.\n<\/p>\n

About the Author\n<\/p>\n

Emil Guillermo is a veteran journalist, commentator, and comic stage monologist. His new show \u201c69, Emil Amok: Anchorman\u2014The News Made Me Do It,\u201d is at the San Diego Fringe at New Destiny\/Lincoln Park, 4931 Logan Ave. Ste. 102. May 14-23, at various times. Get tickets here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\"EmilEmil Guillermo<\/p>\n

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a micro-talk show on YouTube.com\/@emilamok1 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Emil Amok Guillermo You may know Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville). He grew up in Oakland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[959,133626,184,133627,961,133628,133629,964,179,133630,133631,966,968,93,133632,405,133633,418,133634,133635,133636,133637,721,133638,972,133639,133640,133641,133642,974,100,20133,143,145,144,957,975,133643,13,958,133644,133645,133646,133647,133648,133649,133650,133651],"class_list":["post-320248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-activism","tag-activism-in-tennessee-politics","tag-bay-area","tag-black-and-brown-voter-representation","tag-black-history","tag-civic-engagement-minority-communities","tag-civil-rights-advocacy-modern-politics","tag-commentary","tag-community","tag-democratic-participation-united-states","tag-electoral-justice-movement-usa","tag-emil-guillermo","tag-equity","tag-featured","tag-felony-disenfranchisement-statistics-tennessee","tag-government","tag-grassroots-voter-mobilization-campaigns","tag-history","tag-impact-of-redistricting-ruling-usa","tag-jim-crow-system-comparison-modern-era","tag-justin-jones-tennessee-state-representative","tag-justin-pearson-congress-campaign","tag-law","tag-legislative-advocacy-voting-rights","tag-local","tag-minority-political-representation-crisis","tag-minority-voting-rights-challenges","tag-modern-civil-rights-movement-leaders","tag-multiracial-democracy-movement-usa","tag-national","tag-news","tag-nnpa-special-nnpa-black-voter-drive","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-post","tag-opinion","tag-political-activism-civil-rights-leaders","tag-politics","tag-post-news-group","tag-public-policy-racial-representation","tag-reconstruction-history-voting-rights","tag-southern-states-voting-rights-issues","tag-student-id-voting-laws-controversy","tag-supreme-court-race-gerrymandering-decision","tag-tennessee-legislature-reinstatement-justin-jones","tag-voter-suppression-laws-tennessee","tag-voting-rights-act-supreme-court-ruling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}