Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) suggested that Black families were better off during the Jim Crow era.
Donalds, who is on Donald Trump’s shortlist of potential running mates, made the comment while making a pitch to Black voters in Philadelphia.
During the event, Donalds said he is seeing a “reinvigoration” of Black family,” which he described as younger people forming nuclear family units and “helping to breathe the revival of a Black middle class in America.” He went on to say that those family values had previously been eroded by Democratic policies that Black voters embraced after becoming loyal to the party due to the Civil Rights Movement, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“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 people voted conservatively,” Donalds said.
Donalds received criticism for his comments from multiple individuals including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
“That’s an outlandish, outrageous, and out of pocket observation,” Jeffries said during a speech on the House floor. “We would not be better off when a young boy named Emmett Till could be brutally murdered without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when black women could be sexually assaulted without consequence because of Jim Crow. We would not be better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when children could be denied a high-quality education without consequence because of Jim Crow.”
“We would not be better off when people could be denied the right to vote without consequence because of Jim Crow. How dare you make such an ignorant observation? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself,” Jeffries said.
Trump and his campaign have been stepping up efforts to win over Black voters. But the Inquirer noted that while there Black people at the event in Philadelphia half of them were not from the city.
