Rep. Ayanna Pressley: Blacks Treated ‘Like Second Class Citizens’ in America
Rusty Weiss
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During a hearing on civil rights and civil liberties held Thursday before the House Oversight Committee, Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley claimed black Americans are treated “like second class citizens” and insinuated President Trump is largely to blame.
Pressley used her time to discuss the threat of White Supremacy to black Americans, alleging that there has been a rise in hate crimes in America “due to the hateful rhetoric being spewed regularly by the occupant of our White House.”
“This Administration has emboldened white nationalism, white supremacy and far-right extremism including Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” she said with an extreme lack of evidence and turning a blind eye to her own party’s bigoted rhetoric.
Worse, she claimed African-Americans in the United States are treated like lesser people who are targeted by law enforcement disproportionately for the crimes of “existing while black.”
What are so-called “Black Identity Extremists?” They are the FBI’s fake excuse for surveilling civil rights groups like @Blklivesmatter. #ICYMI at yesterday’s @OversightDems hearing on white terrorists, I asked about the legitimacy of the FBI’s claims against black people. pic.twitter.com/oPX1txeA10
— Rep Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) May 16, 2019
“Racism against black Americans is entrenched in the enslavement of our African ancestors and has manifested in our nation’s institutions and policies,” Pressley insisted.
“And despite the progress we have made as a country, black Americans are still treated as second-class citizens, disproportionately targeted for: driving while black, walking while black, lunching while black, organizing while being black, literally existing while black,” she said.
Pressley made this claim as a black member of Congress.
Second Class Citizens
The phrase ‘second class citizen’ must be the new talking point keyword for the radical left in Congress.
Rep. Ilhan Omar recently described Muslims as being treated like “second class citizens” in America.
“Here’s the truth,” Omar said prior to lying. “For far too long, we have lived with the discomfort of living as second class citizens, and frankly I’m tired of it and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.”
Percentage-wise, Jewish Americans are actually more prone to be victims of hate crimes in this country. If we’re playing the ‘words lead to violence’ game, then people like Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and other Democrats who refuse to denounce their anti-Semitism are responsible for this.
Exaggerating
Pressley is very clearly exaggerating the status of African-Americans in the United States, and another panelist’s testimony at the hearing made it clear that her hyperbole on hate crimes was not accurate either.
Robbie Soave writes at Reason, in rehashing this testimony, that “the FBI’s hate crime statistics do not, in fact, provide reliable evidence of a significant spike in hate crimes.”
Despite Pressley’s claims, President Trump’s words are not translating to a tangibly identifiable increase in hate crimes or a decrease in the citizenship status of any groups.
“The alt-right is a small fringe group, and … white nationalists are responsible for a relatively small number of murders relative to the overall violent crime rate,” Soave added.
Claims from the left that President Trump has failed to denounce hate groups have also been widely debunked.