As the nation enters its third week of demonstrations calling for justice in response to police violence and racism, Congressional Democrats have introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, legislation that addresses a few of the concerns protesters have raised. Democrats showed up to the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall in their graduation-appropriate kente stoles, kneeled in silence for nearly nine minutes in honor of George Floyd, before unveiling the proposed bill.
The screenshots, which of course made the rounds on Twitter, give the impression that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and company were just seconds away from going into a step routine to top off the moment. We never thought we’d be adding “hotep Nancy Pelosi” to the meme encyclopedia, but here we are.
Kente cloth has shown up in Congress—a place that loves a fashion statement—before. In 2018 the Congressional Black Caucus donned kente cloth provided by designer Titi Wreh, a Liberian immigrant, at the State of the Union address, in protest of President Donald Trump’s comments disparaging African nations, Haiti, and El Salvador as “shithole countries”—a fair demonstration of protest considering kente is a traditional Ghanian fabric, with other African nations having their own distinct textiles. But with so many public figures and companies currently offering empty statements of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters and apologies that they will “do better,” whatever that means, white members of Congress wearing kente cloth can’t help but seem unnecessarily performative and, at worst, pandering.
How did we get here? And how did those kente stoles get there: at the Capitol, on Pelosi and her fellow Democrats? Considering the major delays to shipping most are experiencing due to coronavirus safety measures, it’s only reasonable to ponder whether the kente stoles are something Congressional leaders have in a storeroom specifically for moments like this. Or the other option could be that some Congressional aides were making a series of frantic calls this past weekend trying to get enough kente cloth to go around Congress.
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Congressional Democrats Decided Now Was the Time to Break out the Kente Cloth - Vanity Fair
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