Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) on Tuesday declared that “racism” is “a national security threat” and urged President Donald Trump’s administration to invest more federal funds to “get into the lives” and “minds” of young white males who are “drawn to white militia, white supremacy, white nationalism because they have nothing else to do.”
“I believe that racism… should be declared a national security threat,” Jackson Lee said during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. “Racism is a national security threat. Before, we would say, ‘you have a right to your racist views. You have a right to believe that slavery was right. That segregation was right.’ We live in an era where that can no longer be allowed.”
Before insisting again that “racism is a national security threat,” Jackson Lee added that she is a “huge believer in civil liberties and the Bill of Rights, and particularly the first amendment of the Constitution.”
She said FBI statistics prove “an acceleration” of hate crimes since Trump became president and asked: “Who is the predominant actor? Young, disaffected white males… what is a major factor? Youth.”
“We must find a way to invest huge sums of money intervening in these white minds that are drawn to white militia, white supremacy, white nationalism because they have nothing else to do — no intervention, no recreation, no libraries, no training of communities,” Jackson Lee insisted.
Jackson Lee warned that without these investments that will enable organizations, like faith-based groups, “to be able to get into the lives of these individuals,” America will wind up with more dead parishioners and more people “whose lives are turned upside down” by white supremacists like the El Paso shooter.
The Texas Congresswoman said the federal government must find “real remedies” because “racism is killing us.”
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