Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is being mocked online for trying to defend against a viewpoint that Republicans are racist and discriminatory.
During a congressional hearing this week, Greene expressed frustration with accusations from Democrats and left-wingers who claim Republicans consistently exercise bigotry and prejudice towards marginalized communities.
“I’m listening today to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle charging Republicans with racism, hate, saying that we discriminate against people from the LGBTQ community, or based on race, has been appalling today, and I’m sorry for the witnesses that have had to hear that,” Greene said.
Many people found Greene’s remarks funny and hypocritical, given her questionable and controversial comments against her Black colleagues and other Democrats.
“So she responds to accusations of racism and bigotry with racist and bigoted remarks. Well done!” one X user wrote.
“She literally just went after her own colleague…a black woman…about her eyelashes. Or does she think we forgot?” another X user wrote, referencing last month’s row Greene had with Rep. Jasmine Crockett after making fun of her fake eyelashes.
Greene was once the center of a House resolution introduced by Democrats who wanted to censure her after she posted on Twitter in 2021 that “Joe Biden is Hitler,” with a doctored video of President Biden with a Hitler-style mustache.
That same year, she made remarks during a rally in Mesa, Arizona, that resembled white supremacist rhetoric, telling Donald Trump supporters that “Joe Biden’s 5 million illegal aliens are on the verge of replacing you, replacing your jobs. … They’re also replacing your culture. And that’s not great for America.”
Then, in 2022, she spoke at a white nationalist conference and later downplayed the appearance, claiming that she was unaware of the views of its attendees and organizers.
Greene’s remarks during the congressional hearing preceded an argument she wanted to make about workplace discrimination.
“For the people watching at home today, we’re talking about Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,” she said. “Yet today, and it was reported by CBS, it says that major U.S. companies gave 94% of new jobs to people of color in 2021. White workers accounted for 20,524 jobs, just 6 percent.”
What Greene conveniently glossed over about the report she referred to was the part about the public commitment that several corporations made in 2020 to hire more people of color to offset the disproportionate number of white people that make up senior leadership roles at major U.S. companies.
Conservative operatives, like Greene, have waged war on these initiatives, calling them discriminatory against white people. After scoring a major win in the Supreme Court, where justices declared race-based college admissions practices unconstitutional last summer, DEI opponents started filing more lawsuits and targeting corporations to nix race-based hiring practices, diversity statements, as well as jobs and offices dedicated to developing equity and inclusion programs.
Some companies have cut DEI jobs as backlash continues to grow. However, a recent study shows that 57 percent of U.S. C-suite executives like chief executive officers (CEOs), chief legal officers (CLOs), and chief diversity officers (CDOs) say their companies have increased their DEI initiatives in the past year.
Greene’s views on DEI are also shared by business magnates and politicians like Elon Musk and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who have labeled DEI commitments as “woke,” “racist,” “immoral,” and “illegal.”
