Democratic State Rep. Gene Wu of Texas is facing intense backlash after racially charged remarks he made on a late-2024 podcast resurfaced and went viral on social media.
The controversy centers on comments Wu delivered during the Dec. 31, 2024 episode of Define American with Jose Antonio Vargas, which were reposted on X by the account End Wokeness, where the clip quickly amassed more than 12.5 million views, according to WND.
The remarks, which framed white Americans as a common oppressor of minority groups, drew swift condemnation from prominent conservatives, including a Republican senator from Texas and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
In the interview, recorded nearly two months after the 2024 presidential election, Wu argued that minority communities are deliberately kept at odds with one another. I think youve hit exactly the right point. And its not just Latinos. Its not just Asians. Its not just African Americans. Its everybody. Its everywhere, Wu told Vargas, before alleging a coordinated effort by unnamed elites to prevent unity among these groups.
Our countryand the powers that behave spent tremendous time, effort, and money to make sure those groups are never united, that they always see each other as enemies or competitors, without ever realizing that they share one thing in common: their oppressors are all the same, Wu continued. He went on to claim that political and social power in the United States is concentrated in a single source of oppression, implicitly casting white Americans and traditional power structures as the adversary.
The oppression comes from one place. I always tell people the day the Latino, African American, Asian, and other communities realize that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning, said Wu, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the Texas House of Representatives. Because we are the majority in this country now. We have the ability to take over this country and do what is needed for everyone and to make things fair. But the problem is our communities are divided. Theyre completely divided.
Wus rhetoric stands in stark contrast to recent electoral trends, which show growing minority support for Republicans and for President Donald Trump. Trump defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, carrying 46% of the Hispanic vote, 40% of the Asian vote and 13% of the black vote in 2024, according to CNNs exit poll.
Those numbers reflect a steady climb from previous cycles, suggesting that the Democratic narrative of a monolithic minority voting bloc is eroding. In 2020, Trump carried 32% of Hispanic voters, 34% of Asian voters and 12% of black voters, according to CNNs exit poll, while in CNNs 2016 data, Trump only received 28% of the Hispanic vote, 27% of the Asian vote and 8% of the black vote.
Republicans seized on Wus comments as emblematic of a broader ideological drift within the Democratic Party toward racial grievance politics and divisive identity rhetoric. These disgusting comments are wokeness at its worst, and the silence is deafening from Democrats, RNC spokesman Zach Kraft told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Look no further than the Senate primary to see how the woke mind virus has spread like wildfire among the ranks of Texas Democrats, Kraft added, pointing to recent behavior by other Democratic hopefuls. James Talarico spent last week apologizing for his white privilege, and Jasmine Crockett is taking a page out of Kamala Harris playbook by preemptively blaming racism and sexism for why she will lose, Kraft continued.
For conservatives, Wus assertion that minority groups have the ability to take over this country underscores a troubling embrace of majoritarian identity politics over individual rights and equal treatment under the law.
As Democrats in Texas and beyond lean further into racialized messaging, Republicans are betting that many Hispanic, Asian, and black voters will continue to reject the language of permanent victimhood and instead gravitate toward a platform of economic opportunity, public safety, and national unity.
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