*A White Republican lawmaker spoke at the Feb. 1 NAACP meeting in Kentucky, where she claimed her father was a slave.
“My father was a slave, just to a white man and he was white,” said Kentucky State Representative Jennifer Decker while discussing an education bill she is sponsoring that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DIE) programs, The Courier- Journal reports.
Decker said her father’s mother “was the illegitimate daughter of a very prominent person who then was kind enough to allow them to work for him as slaves.”
She added, “So, if you’re asking, did we own slaves? My father was a slave, just to a white man and he was white.”
According to The Courier-Journal, Decker’s father was a white preacher who was born in the 1930’s, nearly 70 years after slavery was abolished in the United States.
Jon Stewart interviews Kentucky State Representative Jennifer Decker. Yeah, tell me the same words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. I’ll wait. https://t.co/dAHhN4auqZ
— Monica Gilmore 🐝 🇺🇦 (@FatRatWithIron) April 1, 2023
During the NAACP meeting, Decker said her father’s upbringing was a “great equalizer.”
“There was a very influential man who allowed them property and then they worked on it,” she said of her father’s experience as a “slave.”
“Was I saying that it was kidnapping and abuse the same as the slaves? No,” she said. “He was a child and his family all worked there.”
The reaction to Decker’s remarks is mixed on social media, with one X/Twitter user writing, “Senator Decker is correct about white slavery in America. I can not speak to her family, but we have a lot of information on the subject, aside from the sex trade. Anyone who says different is under-educated or a liar. The research is solid, and my grandfather was one.”
Another commenter added, “Who are the people voting her in? I mean, she didn’t crash the party, she was voted into her position, yes?”
A third wrote, “There is a case for coal miners to be compared to serfs. Other jobs certainly. Not paid in real money. Poverty conditions, etc. but he wasn’t a literal slave.”
READ MORE: The 2024 NAACP Image Awards Nominees Announced – See the FULL List | WATCH
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