If you’re on Twitter, chances are you saw a shocking claim: A Republican congressman actually mocked a Puerto Rican woman’s accent last week during a hearing.
But like so many viral and appalling allegations that surface on social media, this story is a mess of hot garbage.
At a hearing last Friday, Puerto Rico Congresswoman Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, spoke about natural disaster relief efforts and the need to improve the federal government’s response to events like Hurricane Irma.
Gonzalez-Colon (who is actually chair of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party) then yielded her time to fellow Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who directed his attention to one of the committee’s witnesses, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long.
“It’s refreshing to finally have a witness that doesn’t have an accent,” Rogers drawled as he addressed Long, who himself has a heavy drawl.
As you can see, it’s a harmless joke between two Southerners. Also, bear in mind Rogers said “witness.” He was referring to the table in front of him. Clearly:
But Twitter activists have never been one for details, and the usual suspects jumped into action, suggesting (and some outright accusing) the Alabama Republican of taking a swipe at Gonzalez-Colon’s accent.
Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers last week, after Jenniffer González-Colón of Puerto Rico speaks at a hearing: “It’s refreshing to finally have a witness who doesn’t have an accent.” (via C-SPAN) https://t.co/u2GD7QwgSI pic.twitter.com/cuSDNbXe0T
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 22, 2018
The CSPAN video included in the above tweet, which has been shared by nearly 2,000 social media users, leaves out the part where Long laughed at Rogers comments, showing he clearly got the joke.
The Twitter account “Latino Rebels” also tweeted the video Tuesday with a note that read, “Why is [Rep. Mike Rogers] AL saying the following, ‘It’s refreshing to finally have a witness that doesn’t have an accent before this committee,’ right after [Rep. Jenniffer] of #PuertoRico speaks. And Rogers has a F-ING ACCENT! #NoMames.”
Phillip Tutor, commentary editor for the Alabama newspaper the Anniston Star, added elsewhere, “Well, Saks’ own [Rep. Mike Rogers] has a thing against people with accents, apparently.”
All of this goes back to when Politico published a video on its website Friday with with a headline clearly implying Rogers had mocked Gonzalez-Colons’ accent. Politico eventually took down the video and added an editor’s note that reads, “A video of Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), mistakenly published on March 16, has been removed because his remarks about a witness’ accent were not in reference to Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, as the headline had suggested.”
The funniest part in this stupid episode is that the woman at the center of this narrative is as confused as her Republican colleague.
“What [Rep. Mike Rogers] was clearly referring to was [Brock’s] enunciation, which like Rogers, is considered by many people to be a Southern drawl. It was a light-hearted bit of humor and I appreciated it. Rep. Rogers was not being negative about any accent,” she tweeted Wednesday.
Rogers, for his part, was not amused with the bogus narrative.
“The witness at the hearing, FEMA Administrator Brock Long, was previously EMA Director in the State of Alabama. I have known Brock a long time in Alabama and actually had breakfast with him and my colleagues before the Homeland Security Full Committee hearing last week,” the congressman tweeted. “It is crystal clear that it was a joke directed at Brock because he and I both have similar accents from the South. A joke that we are the ones that don’t have an accent and everyone else does.”
From one harmless joke is born a narrative alleging casual racism at a congressional hearing. That’s neat.
