Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, became upset during a House hearing on Wednesday, which led her to rant about how White men were never oppressed in the United States.
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."
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"You consistently said over and over the word ‘oppression,’ and every time that you said it, it was almost as if I was hearing nails on a chalkboard, because it seems like you don't understand the definition of ‘oppression,’ And I'd ask you to just refer to Google to help you out. Oppression is the prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control. That is the definition of oppression," she said. "And so, as I sit here as a Black woman who practiced civil rights, let me tell you the reason that my colleagues wanted to make sure you understood the same Black history that your side of the aisle wants to delete out of classrooms is because you can then misuse words like ‘oppression.’"
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Crockett argued White men in the United States haven't faced oppression because they weren't forced off their lands and sent to a foreign country as slaves.
"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."
Crockett pointed to how White men only comprise of 30% of the country's population but hold over 60% of elected offices.
"I can't even tell you how many White men have served in this chamber. But I can tell you that I am only the 55th Black woman to be elected to Congress. And so when you want to talk about history and pretend as if it was so long ago, it wasn't," she said. "Because again, I am just number 55."
She concluded her remarks by claiming "companies with more diverse workforces are more likely to outperform their competitors."
"Diversity works, and until you can show me data that says otherwise, I think that we need to go back to being a country that listens to experts and gets out of our feelings and recognizes again that racism is real in this country, and until we stop pretending that it's not, we will not solve the problems that we are consistently facing. And that will bring real unity that we seek when we're looking for a more perfect union," she said.
