As the battle between Republicans and Democrats remains fierce in Texas, the state’s GOP is pushing for one Democratic politician to not only lose his job but also to be stripped of his citizenship. The extreme attack is based on a video clip of the state legislator urging minority groups to join forces against oppression, which Republicans are attempting to paint as a nefarious plan against white people.
Republicans attack Chinese American Democrat over interview clip
“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, because we are the majority in this country, now,” Wu says in the short clip being circulated on social media. “We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone and to make things fair,” the Democrat, who represents the Houston area in the Texas state legislature, said. “But the problem is our communities are divided.” Right-wing accounts quickly seized on the clip, interpreting it as an attack against white people. The far-right “End Wokeness” account posted a 28-second version of the clip, incorrectly quoting it as saying, “Non-whites share the same oppressor and we are the majority now. We can take over this country,” despite Wu never saying “non-whites” in the video.
Conservative Texas politicians have seized on the clip to condemn Wu and Democrats. Sen. Ted Cruz shared the clip with the caption, “The Democrat party is built on bigotry.”
Conservative Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reposted the clip, alleging, “Gene Wu is a radical racist who hates millions of Texans just because they’re white.”
And Republican Aaron Reitz, one of the candidates running to replace Paxton as attorney general, went further, pledging, “As AG, I want to see @GeneforTexas de-naturalized.” Reitz justified the threat of removing Wu’s citizenship — a rare legal maneuver that is generally only done in cases of fraud in a person’s citizenship application — by claiming that Wu, whose family immigrated from China when he was a child, “likely concealed his anti-American sentiment throughout his citizenship app process.”
Republicans push conspiracy theory that Democrats are trying to replace white people
Republicans have used the clip of Wu to push the narrative that Democrats are anti-white and trying to promote a race war or the replacement of white people. This “great white replacement” claim has become a far-right racist conspiracy theory. Influential conservative figures such as Elon Musk and the late activist Charlie Kirk have espoused versions of this idea. The theory has also inspired acts of violence, ranging from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection to the 2022 racist mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket that left 10 Black customers dead. Despite the negative impact of such divisive rhetoric, Republicans have pushed for policies that would challenge the citizenship of mostly non-white people in the country, such as challenging the constitutional principle of birthright citizenship and expanding the rare process of denaturalizing citizens.
So far, Wu has responded to the uproar by posting an article by Texas Monthly writer Christopher Hooks, who noted that Wu’s comments do not actually single out white people, as Republicans have claimed, but are standard liberal talking points pointing toward conservative “oppressors.” Furthermore, Hooks pointed out that the short clip is taken from a much longer, “remarkably thoughtful and nuanced” 37-minute interview. In a slightly longer version of the clip, Wu discusses the challenges of unity between Black and Asian Americans and promotes cooperation between the two communities, noting how other minority populations have benefited from Black-led activism like the Civil Rights Movement.
In context, Wu’s comments appear to be part of a longer discussion on interethnic unity and appreciation for the benefits that various people have seen from Black activism. For right-wing forces in Texas and online, however, the rewording and misconstrual of his comments has served to fuel their narratives that Democrats and non-white people are out to get them, providing fodder for their efforts to challenge the patriotism and even the citizenship of their opponents.
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