Hoping to become Trump's VP pick, Republican Congressperson from Florida Byron Donalds described slavery as an economic boon and good for the enslaved. Economists suggest he review ethics, not economics.
Slavery was not good for slaves. The United States' history of slavery is an undeniable horror and proof that things were not perfect at the inception of this nation. This idea that slavery was some bullshit health care program that had the tremendous benefit of no right to self-determination is horrendous and a lie used to imply slaves were better off enslaved.
Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Wesley Hunt (R-TX) made their case to supporters in Philadelphia this week that living under Jim Crow was better for them. The event was part of the campaign's "Black Americans for Trump" initiative.
"You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively," Donalds said, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected Donalds' comments passionately.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn took the floor to call the remark an "outlandish, outrageous and out of pocket observation."
"When a young boy named Emmett Till could be brutally murdered without consequence because of Jim Crow, we were not better off," Jeffries said. "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."
Jeffries finished the fiery speech saying: "How dare you make such an ignorant observation? You better check yourself, before you wreck yourself."
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Previously:
• Now any Floridian can ask to have public schools' science and literary curriculum censored
• HS Principal schools Florida Republican over math textbook ban