Rep. Jasmine Crockett is known for dropping truth bombs on the floor of the House of Representatives. Unafraid and unbossed, Crockett is especially on target when her colleagues show ignorance of Black history, or start talking about how white men are oh-so-oppressed in America.
So on Nov. 20, when her Republican colleagues held a hearing on a GOP-sponsored bill that would dismantle workplace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs — to, you know, stop the white-man oppression — it was bombs away for Crockett, a two-term Texas Democrat.
“There has been no oppression for the white man in this country,” she declared in a fiery, nearly two-minute speech. “You tell me which white men were dragged out of their homes. You tell me which one of them was dragged across an ocean and told they were going to work, have their wives stolen, and have their wives raped. That didn’t happen. That is oppression.”
Crockett pointed out that Republicans are constantly trying to erase Black history from school textbooks. They want to keep American schoolchildren in the dark, she said, so they “can then misuse words like oppression” — just like her House colleagues were doing at that moment.
The truth bombardment didn’t stop there. Crockett then drew a sharp line between how Black Americans arrived in America and how recent migrants from the rest of the world got here. “We didn’t run away from home,” she declared. “We were stolen.”
In the weeks since the nation decided to send Donald Trump back to the White House — and gave Republicans full control of the House and the Senate — many politicians and activists on the left want folks who fight for social justice to start the resistance against him now. Waiting until Trump is sworn in would be too late.
After all, they say, the president-elect and his MAGA-Republican henchmen are already using the levers of power to steer the country hard to the right. The anti-DEI bill is just one example.
It’s clear Crockett got the memo. She did not hesitate to let the bombs fly.
“We need to return to listening to experts, getting out of our feelings, and recognizing that racism is real,” she said. “Pretending it’s not will prevent us from solving the problems we face and achieving the unity required for a more perfect union.”
Los Angeles-based writer and editor Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier is the managing director of Word In Black. She has written about racial justice, gender equality, education, health, and culture for several national websites and print publications including Ebony, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, and Good Housekeeping.