Outgoing New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, best known for pulling a fire alarm to delay a House vote and for losing his primary by a whopping 17 points, took to X to express his outrage over the Daniel Penny verdict.
In the opening post of a 12-post thread (accessible in full by clicking below), Bowman wrote: “Dear White People, I don’t know why I feel the need to keep talking to you. I don’t know why part of me still has hope for you and for us. Some of you are too far gone. But maybe enough of you aren’t and will join us in fighting to end white supremacy.”
Jamaal Bowman continued his thread to “call out the hypocrisy and evil of it all.” He shared that he has “seen countless incidents of brutal police violence and killings in my lifetime.” He referenced the cases of Rodney King, George Floyd, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and Breonna Taylor before shifting his focus back to Jordan Neely.
Adding to his list, Bowman mentioned Tyre Nichols—a 29-year-old black man who died in January 2023, several days after being brutally beaten by five black Memphis police officers. Bowman explained his inclusion of Nichols, stating, “White supremacy is not skin color. It’s a state of mind.” In other words, according to Bowman, the black officers were agents of white supremacy.
Bowman eventually returned to Jordan Neely’s case, asserting, “Neely was sick, but not a threat. He was subdued. Still not a threat. Daniel Penny choked him for 6 minutes. And killed him. We all watched it on camera, and he was still acquitted.”
Interestingly, Bowman did not mention the black man who helped restrain Neely during the incident.
He concluded his impassioned thread by decrying how black people are “harmed or killed,” claiming that “there is never accountability or justice. This is the evil of white supremacy.”
Later, Bowman reposted the first tweet in his 12-post thread, adding the caption, “Seems like I hit a nerve. White people on X going crazy on this one. Must’ve been a lot of truth in what I posted.”
He followed up with another message:
Unsurprisingly, Bowman faced significant backlash for his remarks. His posts were met with numerous “community notes” from other users, highlighting the obvious inaccuracies and contradictions in his claims.
Other users were happy to explain to Bowman why he lost his primary this summer.
He was even called out by one black man who noted that during his four years in Congress, he’d done nothing to enact change for those whom he professes to care so much about. Instead, he “stirs the pot for clicks and cheap outrage. … Is this really the legacy you want? Screaming into the void while doing nothing for the people you claim to represent?”
What Bowman needs to understand most is that the “Al Sharpton-style” of race-baiting no longer resonates with the public. The nation has moved past the unfounded hysteria over “systemic racism” that swept across the country following George Floyd’s death in May 2020. The divisive narrative that America is inherently racist—propagated by the Democratic Party and amplified by the legacy media—has run its course. Daniel Penny’s acquittal by a New York jury serves as a clear signal that America has entered a post-2020 era. At last, a measure of sanity has returned to the national conversation.
Goodbye, Jamaal.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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