Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, had some choice words today for a congressman who named her among the black community’s “perceived leaders” who actually are keeping black voters on a “21st-century plantation.”
Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., made the comments Monday on Fox News. Per USA Today:
West told Fox News that black Democrats are feeling “disregarded” and “disrespected.” He is the only black Republican in the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus).
“I’m here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility,” West said on Bill O’Reilly’s show.
He specifically mentioned Waters, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., calling them “perceived leaders” in the black community. Lee and Waters are both former chairwomen of the caucus.
Our blogs are having embedding problems at the moment, but you can see the full video here.
Lee’s office gave me her statement a short while ago.
“Congressman West’s comments are absurd on their face and are simply another in a long stream of incendiary comments designed to fan the flames of the extreme right, while they continue to do nothing to create jobs and address the tremendous disparities that we face in this nation,” she said.