Rep. Eli Crane calls black Americans ‘people of color’ on the House floor

Rep. Eli Crane, Republican, Arizona.Referenced black race Speaking as ‘People of Color’ in Floor Debate on Annual Meeting Amendment on Thursday defense policy Specificationprovoked a harsh rebuke from the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“My amendment has nothing to do with whether people of color or black people or anyone can serve in Congress,” Mr. Crane said in his first term. “It has nothing to do with that.”

Lawmakers are debating a series of amendments to the Republican-backed National Defense Authorization Act, which the House hopes to pass by the end of the week.

Crane said his amendment would require the Department of Defense to consider race, gender, religion, political affiliation, or “other ideological notions” as the sole basis for recruitment training, education, promotion and retention decisions. said to ban

“The military was never meant to be all-inclusive. The strength of the military is not the diversity. The strength of the military is the criteria,” said Crane, a 43-year-old veteran.

“I want to tell you this now. You can do it. You can continue to play games that are diverse, fair and inclusive. But there are some real threats out there. And if we keep messing around and lowering standards, it won’t be good,” he said.

Shortly after Mr. Crane finished speaking, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) called for the derogatory language Mr. Crane used to be removed from the record.

“I find it offensive and highly inappropriate,” said Beatty, who chaired the black caucus’ group in the previous Congress. “I ask for your unanimous consent to remove the language referring to me and my colleagues as people of color.”

Crane interposed a request to amend his comments about “people of color.” However, Beatty insisted that the term be removed from his record. They were removed by unanimous consent.

“I made a mistake,” Crane said when asked to comment on the choice of words.

“During a heated debate about my proposed amendment to ban color discrimination in the military, I made a mistake,” Crane said in a statement. “We are all created in the image of God and created equal.”

Beatty, 73, said the Crane Amendment “undermines our freedom to learn about each other, employ each other and understand our cultures”.

The House of Representatives adopted the Crane amendment Thursday night by a vote of 214 to 210.

In the Senate this week, Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville said: Rejected To acknowledge that white nationalism is fundamentally racist.

Asked for clarification on comments he made in May: Seemed to defend white supremacist service In an interview with CNN Monday night, Mr. Tuberville of the military argued that not all white supremacists are racists. He instead suggested that they were simply people with “several, possibly different beliefs.”

Rebecca Kaplan contributed.