Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow on Sunday that Democrats are showing “complete disrespect” to black Americans who suffered under Jim Crow laws when they try to compare events in American history to policies today.
The congressman spoke to Breitbart News on Sunday at Turning Point USA’s annual Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida.
In response to Marlow’s question asking if he believes Jim Crow laws and slavery are being downplayed by the left “suggesting that the plight that people went through during those much worse times in American history is the same as people who want voter ID at the polls,” Donalds said, “It absolutely does.”
“It not only cheapens it, it actually is a complete disrespect to all the black people in our country who were victimized, brutalized, because of Jim Crow laws,” the congressman added. “It is a complete disrespect.”
Watch the full interview here:
Donalds also called Critical Race Theory “one of the most divisive things in our country.”
“We all know the past. It’s not a secret,” the congressman continued. “Nobody’s hiding slavery, and segregation, and racism. Nobody’s hiding that.”
“But to weaponize an academic theory, and I stress, a theory — because it is a theory, it is not proven — and to try to move that into K-12 and into our military, that’s outrageous, because you divide people,” Donalds added.
The congressman explained that “the elites” are pushing agendas like Critical Race Theory, because they don’t have to worry about the same types of things that average Americans worry about, and therefore, “they get to sit around and think about this kind of stuff.”
“But working men and women, they don’t have to time deal with this mess,” Donalds said. “What they’re trying to do is make sure there’s food on the table, the rent or the mortgage is paid, and are their kids learning?”
“Those are the three things that they’re focused on, and that’s what they should be focused on, because that’s for the betterment of themselves and their family,” he added. “They want to make sure that their kids are better than they are.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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