Today’s quote comes to us from Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is about to start her second term representing Texas’s 30th congressional district.
Here, from Alexander Hall’s article at foxnews.com, is the basis for Rep. Crockett’s quote:
During a House Oversight Committee hearing about the “Dismantle DEI Act”, which seeks to weaken diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Crockett responded to a Republican colleague championing the bill as a “strong response to the oppression of our rights, liberties and freedoms.”
Crockett strongly objected to the Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., using the word “oppression.”
And here is the quote itself:
“There has been no oppression for the White man in this country. You tell me which White men were dragged out of their homes. You tell me which one of them got dragged all the way across an ocean and told that ‘You are going to go to work. We are going to steal your wives. We are going to rape your wives.’ That didn’t happen. That is oppression,” Crockett said. “We didn’t ask to be here. We’re not the same migrants that y’all constantly come up against. We didn’t run away from home. We were stolen. So yeah, we are going to sit here and be offended when you want to sit here and act like… and don’t let it escape you that it is White men on this side of the aisle telling us, people-of-color on this side of the aisle that y’all are the ones being oppressed, that y’all are the ones that are being harmed. That’s not the definition of oppression. You tell me the prolonged, cruel or unjust treatment that you’ve had and we can have a conversation.”
Interesting. Let’s think about this.
First of all, there is the generalization. The stereotype. “No White Man….” I don’t care how you finish this, it is racist and wrong. The one and only thing anyone can say that is true of every White man is that they are all White and male. The end. Skin color does not – repeat, NOT – define whether anyone is oppressed or in what way it occurred.
Regarding “which one of them got dragged all the way across an ocean and told that ‘You are going to go to work. We are going to steal your wives. We are going to rape your wives.’”? Can Jasmine Crockett please tell me which Black person – male or female – she can produce that this has happened to? If this were, say 1865, the year the civil war ended, she would be able to find plenty of them. But now? No one. Zero. In other words, Crockett is blaming people, today, for something that happened over 150 years ago – based on nothing but the color of their skin. You want an example of racism? This is a classic one.
On a personal level – as a Jewish male – I have a major problem with her alleged point Maybe she never heard of the holocaust, but millions of White men – and women and children – were killed specifically because they were Jewish, or gay, or Romany, or not in physically perfect condition. Maybe this doesn’t count to her, but it does to me. And this was a lot more recent than slavery in the USA.
And then there is the fact of Black migration to the United States. Maybe Ms. Crockett can explain why so many Black people from places like Africa, Haiti, etc. proactively come to the United States to live. Does she think they are voluntarily subjecting themselves to oppression?
This leads to another important point. If Ms. Crockett wants to talk about “prolonged, cruel or unjust treatment”, here’s something she should consider: most of the oppression and slavery in this world – today’s world, not 150 or more years ago – occurs in….AFRICA.
From Angela Ukomadu and Nneka Chile’s 2019 article for Reuters, we have this:
As the world marks 400 years since the first recorded African slaves arrived in North America, slavery remains a modern-day scourge. Over 40 million people are estimated to be trapped in forced labour, forced marriages or other forms of sexual exploitation, according to the United Nations.
Africa has the highest prevalence of slavery, with more than seven victims for every 1,000 people, according to a 2017 report by human rights group Walk Free Foundation and the International Labour Office. The report defines slavery as “situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, ; and/or abuse of power.”
I wonder if Jasmine Crockett – who personally went to private schools growing up – ever thinks about this slavery; slavery that exists today. Right now. And is perpetuated by people who have exactly the same color skin she has. I wonder if Ms. Crockett has ever protested that “oppression”.
Based on the above, I award Rep. Jasmine Crockett Quote Of The Day “honors” for demonstrating that racial animus and intolerance can be found anywhere, from anyone, including people who look just like she does….because, in Crockett’s case, it is her.
