During a passionate committee hearing speech on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, scolded her Republican colleagues over the markup of an anti-DEI bill that calls for eliminating all programs and offices related to diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government.
Crockett, a 43-year-old freshman congresswoman who has become a Democratic star from her many viral committee moments, decried the Dismantle DEI Act of 2024. The bill, H.R. 8706 — first introduced by Republican Vice President-elect JD Vance — would essentially ban all things DEI within the federal government, including all related roles, offices, training and funding. Strikingly, the bill also prohibits any federal employees working in DEI roles from being reassigned to another federal job.
During a House Oversight Committee hearing while responding to Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., who repeatedly referred to DEI policies as “oppression” — seemingly toward white people, as many Republicans have suggested — Crockett used her committee speaking time to rail against the suggestion that white people are being oppressed by efforts to close racial gaps in sectors like business, education and health.
“You don’t understand the definition of oppression … I’d ask you to just refer to Google,” said Crockett, who moments later read a dictionary definition of the word, adding, “Oppression is the prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control that is the definition of oppression.” The congresswoman emphasized, “There has been no oppression for the white man in this country.”
Harkening back to the history of U.S. chattel slavery and racial segregation, the Texas lawmaker 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 going to go and work. We are going to steal your wives. We are going to rape your wives. That didn’t happen. That is oppression.”
In an attempt to further explain the importance of DEI, Crockett noted that she is only the 55th Black woman elected to Congress in its 235-year history, as opposed to the thousands of white men who have served on Capitol Hill.
“So when you want to talk about history and pretend as if it was so long ago, it wasn’t,” said Crockett, who cited data that shows that businesses perform better and are more profitable when they are more diverse.
The anti-DEI movement heralded exclusively by Republicans has led to several lawsuits striking down federal programs, including debt relief for Black farmers and business loans for Black and other disadvantaged businesses. Many states led by Republican governors have pointed to DEI — particularly the teaching of slavery and racism — as harmful to students, namely white students. In response, they have banned such topics from public classrooms.
Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, the political arm of the civil rights organization, said Congresswoman Crockett’s statements on DEI were “poignant and necessary.”
“As right-wing extremists continue to work to erase Black History from American consciousness, they are also working to rewrite that history by claiming that white people are oppressed in this country,” Brown told theGrio. “DEI programs are built to level the playing field.
While the Dismantle DEI Act will certainly not be passed into law while Democrats control the Senate and President Joe Biden remains in office, it signals what could be a priority for Republicans next year, as outlined in the pro-Trump policy manifesto Project 2025.
“According to Project 2025, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is synonymous with ‘White Lives Don’t Matter,’” noted Brown. “Now more than ever, we at Color Of Change PAC, as well as advocates and activists across the nation, must work to protect Black people and other people of color from being harmed by these anti-DEI attacks.”
Brown continued, “Civil rights protections have helped to reduce discrimination in mortgage lending, increase the number of Black doctors to counter issues like Black maternal mortality and provide funding for Black-owned businesses.”
He added, “Our country thrives, and everyone benefits when diversity, equity, and inclusion are valued — not stifled.”
