Photos: Florida Sen. Ileana Garcia speaks during a Senate Community Affairs Committee meeting, Jan. 12, 2022, in Tallahassee. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack). Barack Obama attends the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Goalkeepers Conference, Sept. 20, 2017. (NYC)
Florida State Sen. Ileana García said she believes racism is dead in America, and she’s pointing to former President Barack Obama as proof of her claim.
During an interview with investigative reporter Jim DeFede of South Florida’s CBS4 station, García discussed why she supports a Florida bill banning Critical Race Theory (CRT). She argued it shouldn’t be taught in schools because there is no racism or division in America.
“I do know of conversations where teachers come in and feel that they need to have this conversation with students and suggest that this is something that they need to be aware of that there is a division and there isn’t a division Jim,” García said.
“We’re white, we’re Black, we’re poor, we’re rich – once again I am not about feeding the fire,” García continued. “I am about coming, having a conversation, balancing it out, and if there was something that was done wrong, we should study history so that we can get beyond it.”
DeFede then asked García if she thought Black Americans’ experience in America was any different than that of white Caucasians and Latinos.
“No, not at all,” García replied. “That’s why we had Obama as a president. That’s the best example in the world. Obama was president, not for four years, for eight,” Garcia said, before adding she was discriminated against by Black Americans “on all fronts” when she was a child.
“At that time we were the minority and as a child I didn’t know any better but I remember going home and my mother didn’t make it a point of festering on that,” García said. “Neither do we! I don’t at all. I look at it as a learning experience and I’ve moved on; and I think people should move on from it.”
People on Twitter weighed in with some criticizing García’s stance, while others took up for her.
“Speak to me as a person and not in coded political language. You know what you’re doing is wrong. And yes. You’re talking to a real Black person,” @sflachuck tweeted. “Tell me why the history of my ancestors, who were escaped slaves who founded Miami with the Indians, is detrimental to your children?”
“I don’t see where’s the fault Jim… this is being pull by a hair,” @eedobarganes tweeted. “Ileana’s constant work for the most vulnerables in the Cuban and Latino communities speaks about her focus on constructive possitivism instead of the average politician’s ‘Dwelling in past events’.”
García responded to DeFede’s tweet about the interview by stating he was “mincing” words. “Thanks Eduardo! Media isn’t concerned about the constituents well-being they are more concerned w ratings, traffic and in DeFede’s case his liberal political activism,” Garcia tweeted. “He himself is no stranger to setting people up! Mincing words is what they do. I don’t fester hate like they do.”
However, another Twitter user said García had more than enough time to clarify her statements.
“What are you talking about, Senator, mincing words? You were on TV for 12 minutes, you spoke in paragraphs and you were given opportunities to clarify previous answers,” @atthebeach9 wrote. “Do you think you come off looking bad in this interview?”
Photos: Florida Sen. Ileana Garcia speaks during a Senate Community Affairs Committee meeting, Jan. 12, 2022, in Tallahassee. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack). Barack Obama attends the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Conference, Sept. 20, 2017. (NYC)
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