Black Maryland politicians respond to racist comments following Key Bridge collapse

With less than two weeks left before they adjourn for the year, the Maryland General Assembly has continued its work in the face of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. But, for some lawmakers, it tinges the remainder of the legislating to be done and their role as elected officials.

Sen. Charles Sydnor, a Black Democrat from Baltimore County, stood on the Senate floor at the end of Thursday’s session, addressing his dismay at the racism and politicization of the bridge’s destruction that has flooded social media since Tuesday. From behind their keyboards, some people have blamed the accident that left one individual unscathed, one severely injured, two confirmed dead and four presumed dead on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

Among the innumerable posts, Sydnor pointed to Utah Republican state representative and gubernatorial hopeful Phil Lyman, who wrote on X that the bridge’s collapse is “the result of governors who prioritize diversity over the well-being and security of citizens,” and at an unnamed Republican congressional candidate in Florida who stated that “DEI did this.” People have attacked Black Port of Baltimore commissioners for an alleged “lack of knowledge,” and declared Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott a “DEI mayor,” Sydnor said.

In a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, Scott, a Democrat, said that people who use the term DEI in a negative light “don’t have the courage to say the N-word,” and re-appropriated the term to mean “duly elected incumbent.”

Scott, who is rounding out his first term as mayor, is campaigning to be reelected in 2024.

“To falsely equate diversity with a lack of knowledge and our Blackness with incompetence is simply a lie,” Sydnor said. “It does not matter to some of these people that the aforementioned were duly appointed or duly elected. Why? Because many of these folks don’t believe that me and my colleagues should hold the offices we hold, or even should be voting in the first place.”

Before he sat, the senator took an exasperated breath and quoted the text included in an 1837 wood carving of a slave in chains.

“Am I not a man and a brother?” he asked.