Palmetto Progressives Interview Series Part 4 of 5: Thomas Dixon

Thomas Dixon is a lot of things. He is currently running for mayor in North Charleston. He serves on the national board for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. He founded a group called The Coalition: People United to Take Back Our Community. He is a pastor. But most of all, he is a community activist who is constantly at work in the Charleston area.

            Dixon has been a friend and mentor to me over the past year as I have gotten more involved in the local political scene and has always been there to give advice or lend a podium. He has been at every event organized by my organization and has always shown us support. I wanted to interview him for this series because of our friendship and to talk about conducting protests and the issues facing our community.

            Without further ado, here is the interview:

            You can also listen to the interview here.

When did you first enter the local political scene and why?

�I haven�t really been into politics for a long period of time. My first excursion into politics was in 2016 when I ran against Tim Scott for US Senate. And the only reason why I did it then was because, once again, Scott would have run unopposed. The activist inside of me said, �I�m not just going to let him waltz in there unopposed.�

            So, I put my hat in the ring and decided to run against him. I didn�t have a lot of forethought in that though. I didn�t realize what that involved. I realized that it was a state race (46 counties, 32,000 square miles) that I had to cover with no experience and no staff and no money. But we did it. We still managed to do it.

            For me, I�m not a politician, I�m a public servant. That�s what�s key to me and it�s what I have been doing since before I ran in 2016. So, when people that run for office have a platform, my platform was my life when I started. All of the same issues that I had been championing, those became my platform. So, when I came up with 37% of the vote and 754,000 people in South Carolina voted for me and I still lost, the day after the election I just went back to what I had always been doing.�

What is your opinion on Tim Scott, as a Senator?

�I feel that he�s bought with a price. I believe that he is with a party that has paid him very well and he has served them extremely well. Somebody who has placed politics over people, party over people. Somebody who has chosen to avoid the reality of the African-American community that he knows about, he grew up in it. For whatever reason, be it financial or personal gain I don�t know, his stance as far as being an African-American in America, he doesn�t represent black folks.�

Are there any positive things about Tim Scott?

�Yeah he�s a nice guy. He�s a very personable guy with a great smile. As a matter of fact, I still count him as a friend. I don�t count people as an enemy no matter whether we disagree or not on the issues. We still can agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable. So, he and I have never really been disagreeable with one another. We came close in a debate we had up at Furman University but the moderator was wise enough to call it to an end right at that point where it looked like it was going to be contentious.�

An image from the Senate debate at Furman University between Dixon and Senator Tim Scott.

Throughout your years of public service and activism, is there a specific event or demonstration that sticks out as the most impactful to you or the most effective or the biggest victory that you�ve had?

�For me, the event that you put together.�

You�re just saying that.

�No, I�m not. I�m being totally honest. It was an amazing day filled with amazing people whose spirit energized me to continue in the struggle to end gun violence in particular and to fight for the rights of others. And it�s that same energy that came from other incidences that I�ve encountered that propelled me such as the Walter Scott shooting and the Emanuel tragedy. In the aftermath, it strengthened my resolve to keep pushing. Fortunately, out of tragedy there�s that renewed spirit to get it right. But it can�t be overlooked. Sometimes we need a shock to our system in order to keep pushing forward.

            But the real meaningful event happened with the Lowcountry Students for Political Action.�

I�m honored. What is the role of the church in politics, being a pastor?

�It�s not what it should be. The role of the church right now in America is not what it should be. The biblical aspect of doctrine, the teachings of Christianity, have been pushed aside and politicized and adapted to political correctness and instead of continuing to stand firm on the simple things such as �love God and love your neighbor.� That�s the simple stuff. That�s the ten commandments condensed into two. That should be the foundation of the Bible, of all believers.

But the problem is that there are too many that don�t equate loving your neighbor as you love yourself with making sure that all children are equally provided with public education, with making sure that gun violence has the same priority as abortions because a life is a life no matter if that life is in the womb or if that life is on the block or in a school or in a church. So, the church has actually compromised the teachings that they profess. Christianity has compromised what the Bible teaches and what Christ stood for. They�ve co-opted it into a new fangled thing that is not really about loving your neighbor. It�s actually a misuse of the first commandment which is �love God.�

            There are many Christians now who say, �Yes I love God and yes I love my neighbor.�

            But the reality is, when it comes to simple things like keeping people safe, educating people, paying people a decent amount of money for their wages, they don�t do that. How can you love God who you can�t see but you don�t love the person that you can?�

What�s the key to having a successful nonviolent protest and being effective at the same time?

�You got a harder question? The key would be to make sure that everybody understands that in any situation that adding fire to fire only makes a bigger fire. Everyone needs to understand the principles of nonviolent protest and that nonviolent protest is more effective because it�s a controlled spirit. There�s never been a real accomplishment of any sort when you bring war to defeat war. There�s never a winner in that. So, when we protest nonviolently, we show that we have that restraint and that discipline to move forward on an issue, to stand our ground, but we don�t have to stoop to a level that involves personal engagement.

            Now, I�m also going to say that there are times when civil disobedience is a part of a protest. But those times need to be well thought out and well-calculated and the risk factors all added in before moving forward. You can�t at the last-minute go, �Oh let�s do this.� That�s how people get hurt.�

What is the biggest issue facing this local community, if you could pick one?

�There are so many top issues in this community. I have to break it down a little bit. The economic disparities in this community that have made a clear divide between the haves and the have nots, is by design. The accessibility of resources and educational facilities and everything for those who have (which is actually the minority) as opposed to the have nots receiving the same accessibility. We can call it discrimination. We can call it racism. We can put a whole lot of names on it but it�s classism more than anything. We have those who are in charge here who are more prone to feed into those of a certain class and overlook those of a certain class which is creating the problems that we have right now.�

Can a piece of legislation solve that or is that a societal thing that has to be dealt with on a personal level?

�I think it�s a societal thing. When we look at the issues of privilege or unconscious bias and things of that sort, you can�t regulate that. You can�t legislate that. There has to be a change of heart."

What is your message to young people (18 to 24) who are not registered to vote, don�t care what�s going on in our country and they aren�t concerned about politics at all? Why should they register to vote and go out and vote?

�There�s a very simple answer to that and it�s just a matter of looking clearly at our situation locally, statewide, and nationally. The predicament we are in right now is because people did not go out and vote. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. So, if young folks aren�t going to go vote and expect a different outcome, that�s insanity. The way to fix that is everybody 18 to 24, 18 to 40, 18 to that can barely walk to the poll, everybody needs to go to the poll and vote. Let�s try to win and then figure out if it was worthwhile.�

A close-up of Dixon's red scarf that he often wears.