Sen. Tom Cotton says it's 'anti-American' to oppose systemic racism

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in a speech on Friday claimed that people fighting “systemic racism” are “anti-American.”

Cotton made his claim during an appearance at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Cotton said, “You can call it wokeness or, political correctness. Cancel culture. You can call it critical race theory, critical gender theory, critical whatever.”

“Some people call it systemic racism. But here’s their point: The key word is not ‘racism’; the key word is ‘systemic,'” he added. “It doesn’t matter so much what the system is guilty of, only that the system is guilty, and it needs to be burned to the ground.”

Cotton has frequently singled out efforts to fight racism for criticism.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden’s nominee to be attorney general, Merrick Garland, Cotton contended that pursuing racial equity is racist.

He has argued that schools teaching the accurate history of slavery in America should not be federally funded, and said that people protesting racism were “little different” from Confederates who supported slavery.

From a Feb. 26 speech at CPAC:

TOM COTTON: Now, many on the left have concluded that America is a fundamentally flawed, irredeemable, wicked place.

 

They have a lot of names for it, but whatever banner it flies under, it gets back to that anti-American idea. You can call it wokeness or political correctness. Cancel culture. You can call it critical race theory, critical gender theory, critical whatever.

 

Some people call it systemic racism. But here’s their point: The key word is not “racism”; the key word is “systemic.” It doesn’t matter so much what the system is guilty of, only that the system is guilty, and it needs to be burned to the ground.

 

So many liberals think that about America. And how do they plan to do that? They plan to do it by rejecting our beautiful Declaration of Independence and the central promise of America that we are all created equal in the eyes of God and we all have equal rights under the law.

 

But too many of them no longer believe that.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.