US Republican senator Tim Scott says ‘woke supremacy’ is as bad as ‘white supremacy’
A Republican senator has claimed that “woke supremacy” is as problematic in the US as white supremacy and needs to be taken “seriously”.
“You’ve got to love Tim Scott standing there to provide the patina of diversity over that round of words, that basket full of words,” Ms Reid said at the time.
In an interview with Fox News, Mr Scott said: “Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy. We need to take that seriously.”
The South Carolina senator’s press secretary defended him following the interview, saying he was “not a prop” for the Republican party.
His comments come a week after the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, warned white supremacists were a “top threat” facing America, as he labelled the US Capitol riots in January “domestic terrorism”.
Mr Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI had formally elevated the threat from white supremacist groups to its top priority level, alongside Islamic State.
“The top threat we face from [domestic violent extremists] continues to be those we identify as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs), specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race,” he said.
He told the committee the FBI is investigating about 2,000 domestic terrorism cases. That is more than double the number the same time last year.
The row follows criticism among conservatives over so-called “cancel culture” and its impact on US society.
The most recent target was the decision to stop publishing six Dr Seuss children’s books over racist imagery. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy posted a video of himself reading the Dr Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham, although it is not one of the titles being removed.
