The leader of Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives, state Rep. Gene Wu, is facing conservative backlash after a clip resurfaced of him calling on various racial groups to unite against their common “oppressor.”
The resurfaced viral clip was from a Dec. 31, 2024, episode of the “Define American” podcast with Antonio Vargas titled, “In this Texas District, 1/3 of Residents are Undocumented.”
Vargas argued that the future of the United States will be decided by Texas, asking Wu to give him the big picture. Wu said that one of the powerful forces driving modern politics, particularly regarding immigration, is that “White people” in America are concerned about becoming a racial and political minority.
“The scary thing for me is that what is driving this newest round of anti-immigrant sentiment is purely a sense of White nationalism,” Wu said.
“That there is a sense of, ‘America really just belongs to White people,’ that this was that a lot of people believe that God gave America to White people to rule, and that any time that immigrants, minorities make progress in this country, that that is seen as a slight against them,” he continued.
Both agreed that White people are already or almost a racial minority in Texas, with Wu clarifying that for now, they are still the majority of people who are able to vote. The host later asked Wu to talk about his majority-Latino district and the relationship between the Latino and Asian communities, particularly between those of both groups who are immigrants.
“I think you’ve hit exactly the right point,” Wu said. “It’s not just Latinos. It’s not just Asians. It’s not just African Americans. It’s everybody. Right? We, our country and the forces that be, the powers that be, have spent tremendous time, effort and money to make sure that those groups are never united, that they always see each other as enemies, as competitors, without ever realizing that they share one thing in common, that their oppressors all are the same. The oppression comes from one place.
“I always tell people the day the Latino, African-American, Asian and other communities realize that they are — that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning, because we are the majority in this country now,” he continued. “We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone and to make things fair.”
The 2024 comments resurfaced on social media, causing Wu to face backlash from fellow Texans.
“Gene Wu is a radical racist who hates millions of Texans just because they’re [W]hite. This is who the modern Democrat Party is,” Texas Attorney General and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton wrote.
Former Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi wrote, “This clip is being widely circulated for its advocacy for [W]hite genocide. People need to realize that this isn’t some random Democrat backbencher. This is the Texas House Democrat caucus LEADER.”
“The Democrat party is built on bigotry,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, replied.
Rep. Chip Roy, also of Texas, called on Wu to resign.
“Unlike many Democrats, he admits his racism against [W]hite people and call to ‘take over this country.’ He should resign or the TX House should strip him of any power,” he wrote. “Another reason to pass my PAUSE Act. Stop importing people who hate you.”
After the backlash, Wu appeared to try to backtrack and claim that he was not referring to White people, but Republicans.
The Houston Chronicle’s Evan Mintz, reporting on the viral clip from the longer interview, noted that “nowhere in the clip does Wu talk about [W]hite people.”
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However, Wu had referred to “White people”and their racial anxiety of becoming a minority in America before the segment shown in the clip.
“Just to clarify, I even called up Wu to ask who, exactly, he meant by ‘shared oppressor,'” Mintz wrote. “His answer: Republicans.”
“It is undeniable that Republicans have spent the past 50 years beating down communities,” Wu told the writer.
“To their credit, some Republicans engaged with what Wu actually said, swiping at him for dividing the American people into subgroups in the first place — which, yes, he did do,” Mintz reported.
Wu’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
