I testified in Congress today, and I can’t help but feel like I was doing the job of Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s therapist.
The House Judiciary Committee invited me to speak on the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Democrats on the committee didn’t exactly like that. The Democrats spent their time defending the poor, sweet, little innocent SPLC from that big mean Trump administration.
Most of the Democrats didn’t even try to address the thorny issue of who belongs on the SPLC’s “hate map.” Obviously, it’s slander for the SPLC to put mainstream conservative and Christian groups like the Family Research Council and Turning Point USA on a map with Klan chapters—a map the SPLC says exposes “the infrastructure upholding white supremacy.”
The Democrat witness, Maya Wiley, refused to even address the truth or falsehood of the SPLC’s attacks against my co-witnesses, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and civil rights expert Carol Swain.
Crockett deigned to actually discuss specific groups on the “hate map,” but her questions left much to be desired.
Crockett and the Proud Boys
She began her allotted five minutes by asking each of us whether we considered the Proud Boys to be “white supremacist.” I’m not particularly a fan of the Proud Boys—they’re a bit aggressive for my taste. They define themselves as opposing Antifa, and they got into many clashes with Antifa. It’s quite revealing that the SPLC condemns the Proud Boys but doesn’t condemn Antifa.
I don’t know if the Proud Boys belong on the “hate map.” What I do know, for certain, is that they’re not “white supremacist.”
How do I know this? Because the Proud Boys sued the SPLC for defamation, and I read the lawsuit. The Proud Boys made some very excellent arguments against the claim that they’re “white supremacist,” among them noting the fact that the Proud Boys’ leader—Enrique Tarrio—is of Afro-Cuban descent. The bylaws also explicitly bar white supremacists from joining.
I don’t support the Proud Boys, but I took an oath to tell the truth, and when Jasmine Crockett asked me a question I knew the answer to, I wasn’t about to lie.
Crockett, however, blew up.
Crockett’s Outburst
“Oh my gosh, let me be clear: Proud Boys are freaking white supremacists,” the honorable Democrat gentlelady from Texas began lecturing me.
You can’t quite tell from the video, but Crockett was looking directly at me for the next three minutes of her tirade.
I won’t go into the nuts and bolts of her tirade—you can watch it for yourself.
I do, however, wish to respond to some of the disgusting insinuations she made about me and my fellow witnesses.
Crockett said, “I’m sure some of y’all would struggle with whether or not the enslavement of black people was good or bad—I’m not even going to go there and ask you the question.” For the record, as if it even needed to be said, I oppose race-based chattel slavery. My opinions about the Civil War are hardly a secret.
She also claimed that recent mass shootings involved “white supremacists who were empowered by the Republican Party’s racist rhetoric and policies,” and said the GOP “wants to drag us back to the Jim Crow era.”
Such a claim is absurd, and Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, demonstrated as much brilliantly when he contrasted photos of actual Jim Crow with photos of Americans today presenting ID to vote.
History Books
Perhaps the most disgusting part of her rant came toward the end of the hearing.
“Some of y’all need to read up on your history books, the very same ones that the Republicans have decided that people should not hear about because you don’t want real history taught in our schools because you’re afraid that it’s going to hurt people’s feelings to know that their ancestors were so savage that they would enslave black folk,” Crockett said. “You want them to be ignorant so that they can sit up here and be your token for your mission.”
That “token” line appeared to be a reference to Carol Swain, who is a serious scholar and expert on civil rights matters.
As for me, I do want kids to read history books, but I want them to present the facts fairly and to be tailored to specific grade levels. I don’t want a third-grader reading books tainted by critical race theory—the notion that America is systemically racist such that blacks are inherently oppressed and whites are inherently oppressors. I want kids to learn about slavery, but I also want them to learn why America’s values led to its eventual abolition.
Of course, Crockett’s whole point wasn’t to “educate” me or to get me to change my mind. She likely knows that I don’t support slavery and that Republicans aren’t really trying to bring back Jim Crow.
The whole event felt more like a therapy session, where a good therapist just sits back as the patient vents her feelings.
As a witness, it wasn’t my job to educate her. It was my job to listen, and to weigh in with my expertise when I had the opportunity.
I understand Jasmine Crockett must be going through a lot right now. Perhaps she’ll let me explain why things aren’t quite so bad as she thinks they are—but that will have to wait for our next session.
