‘Woke’ drag queen laws? The only thing we have to fear is Alabama's red state politics of fear

‘Woke’ drag queen laws? The only thing we have to fear is Alabama’s red state politics of fear

Lions, tigers, bears, drag queens, CRT, women’s rights and ‘woke’ book learnin’, oh my!

Alabama and our tribe of red state lawmaker snowflakes wanna ban books and pass laws against anything and everything they don’t understand. It’s a smokescreen. They’re looking for a punching bag to take our eyes away from the real problems they refuse to address.

Related: Kay Ivey’s new anti-woke venture: Kay’s Konfederate Koozies – al.com

Read Frances Coleman’s column: When a word becomes more than just a word, watch out – al.com

Related: Alabama would ban drag performances from schools, libraries, presence of children – al.com

These same tribal red states are bottom dwellers in education, health, mental health and poverty. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey refuses to expand Medicaid, which would help make so many of her poor working constituents’ lives better. But Ivey has no desire to help poor working folks. They are the wrong constituents.

Related: Gov. Kay Ivey denounces ‘woke’ preschool training book, ousts state official – al.com

Related: ‘Can we not just live?’ Alabama’s anti-LGBTQ bills signed into law as teens worry about their future – al.com

Related: Alabama GOP’s biggest fear: Empowered young Black people – al.com

Kay Ivey’s been silent on lots of important stuff, but she found her voice in squeaking out against “woke” stuff. It cost Barbara Cooper, a respected veteran educator, her job. I’d love to hear Kay Ivey’s definition of her new favorite word. But I guess we’ll have to wait for her to get woke up.

More related content:

Anti-transgender laws: Alabama preys on its most vulnerable – al.com

Guest opinion: Reactionary right-wing of GOP has co-opted ‘woke’ – al.com

Alabama GOP lawmaker’s ‘divisive concepts’ bill ‘fights racism’ with racism – al.com

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Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe

Kay Ivey’s new anti-woke venture: Kay’s Konfederate Koozies – al.com

God, guns and sacrificial lambs: Alabama’s worship of guns is killing our children – al.com

Fox News pays $787.5 million for lying: ‘Our viewers don’t want the truth’ – al.com

Dadeville shooting: Hearts broken, dreams shattered by gun violence at birthday party – al.com

Alabama GOP lawmaker’s ‘divisive concepts’ bill ‘fights racism’ with racism – al.com

‘Hold my beer’: Tennessee GOP expels Democracy, goes all in on white nationalism – al.com

JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix.