Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) called out Republicans who considered themselves “anti-woke,” stating they are labeling themselves as “anti-black” during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday.
During a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, topics, Bush pointed to the extremely frequent use of "wokeness" among Republican leaders.
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Bush said those who fixate on establishing themselves as anti-woke are actually saying, “I don't want black people to speak up for themselves. I don't want equality and justice for black folks.”
The comments from Bush follow a recently introduced resolution in the House of Representatives in support of federal reparations. A group of Democratic legislators led by Bush proposed a $14 trillion resolution titled Reparations Now last month for black people to receive compensation for the legacy of slavery and racism in the United States.
“The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people,” Bush said during a May press conference in front of the Capitol.
The push for reparations parallels efforts in California. The reparations task force, established in 2020, will release its final proposal by July 1, potentially becoming the first state in the nation to pay reparations to black residents over systematic discrimination.
Bush said it is “astounding” how often the term wokeness is used “from people who have no idea what woke actually means and where it stems from.” She pointed to the case of Michael Brown in 2014, who was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer.
“I'm one of those folks that was on the ground for more than 400 days after the killing of Michael Brown when that came about,” Bush said. “We said we ‘woke up’ because we won't allow anyone else to do this to us without us fighting back.”
Bush highlighted the connection between wokeness and black people's effort to fight the long-lasting impact of racial discrimination in America during the hearing, speaking out on the lack of support to call the ESG movement a progressive maneuver.
“Responsible investing, which has nothing to do with wokeness, depends on ESG data to facilitate planning for long-term challenges, requiring firms to disclose more data about their risk and returns and how that helps to protect our future by investing in climate resilience and clean energy,” Bush said during the Oversight Committee hearing.
ESG is a framework for considering social and environmental justice in relation to corporate governance, encouraging companies to act responsibly, and considering ESG in investment decisions.
This is the second hearing from the committee about ESG topics, and more are expected in the future. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) targeted ESG ideals in a press release about the hearings, calling the principles “a progressive scheme pushed by radical left-wing groups to pressure large and small businesses to adopt policies that routinely undermine performance.”
“This is not wokeness, what we talked about in here,” Bush added. “And you should be on the side of folks who are woke because we're saying — no more oppression against our community.”
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“So, whatever else is being thrown around, unless you are saying, ‘I'm racist, white supremacist, and I'm bigoted,’ stop talking about wokeness,” Bush concluded. “Don’t let a fascist tell you what being woke means.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Bush's team for comment.