Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) blasted Republicans who said diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts were oppressing white Americans.
During a markup of Rep. Michael Cloud’s (R-Texas) “Dismantle DEI” bill, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) repeatedly referred to DEI policies as “oppression.”
But Crockett swiped back, arguing that white men in America have never faced oppression.
“It seems you don’t understand the definition of oppression,” she began, before reading the definition aloud.
“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,” Crockett, a civil rights defense attorney, added.
The prolonged battle over what aspects of Black history should be taught in schools has coincided with efforts to limit DEI policies.
Cloud’s Dismantle DEI bill would eliminate all federal diversity offices and end DEI requirements for federal contractors and grant applicants.
“DEI programs masquerade as fairness while instead fostering division, inefficiency, and discrimination in our institutions,” Cloud said in a statement Thursday. “They waste taxpayer dollars and undermine the merit-based principles that have made America strong.”
“The Dismantle DEI Act takes aim at this harmful ideology and will root it out of our government, ensuring our institutions focus on the mission of serving the American people efficiently and effectively,” the statement reads.
Crockett referred to the history of slavery and lynching in her remarks to highlight the oppression Black Americans have faced since being brought to the country in the 1600s.
“There has been no oppression for the white man in this country,” the Texas Democrat said. “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 gonna go work, we are gonna steal your wives, we are gonna rape your wives. That didn’t happen. That is oppression.”
“We didn’t ask to be here. We not the same migrants that y’all constantly come up against,” she continued. “We didn’t run away from home. We were stolen. So, yeah, we are going to sit here and be offended.”
Cloud’s bill is not the first to target federal DEI practices. Vice President-elect JD Vance previously sponsored an identical bill in the upper chamber. Neither have advanced past the House or Senate.