House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called Rep. Byron Donalds’s comments ignorant after he suggested black people were better off during Jim Crow.
Rep. Donalds said, “During Jim Crow the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were — not just conservative, because Black people always have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively.”
Video of Jeffries:
Top House Dem Hakeem Jeffries blasted GOP Rep. Byron Donalds’ suggestion that Black families were better off during the Jim Crow era than they are under Biden.
“That’s an outlandish, outrageous and out-of-pocket observation,” Jeffries said today.
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Jeffries said:
It has come to my attention that a so called leader has made the factually inaccurate statement that black folks were better off during Jim Crow. That’s an outlandish, outrageous, and out of pocket observation. We were not better off when a young boy named Emmett Till could be brutally murdered without consequence because of Jim Crow.
We were not better off. When black women could be sexually assaulted without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when children could be denied. A high quality education without consequence because of Jim Crow.
We were not better off when people could be denied the right to vote without consequence because of Jim Crow. How dare you make such an ignorant observation. You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Donalds made these remarks while trying to sway black voters in Philadelphia to support Donald Trump. Republicans are always trying to portray slavery or Jim Crow as a great time for black people in the United States.
No American is better off being deprived of their rights.
The message could not be more clear. Republicans believe in an America where white people are in charge. Trump and his allies don’t seem like they will be satisfied until the clock is turned all the way back to Jim Crow.
