There are things we will deliberately remain obtuse to. In this case, Van Der Veen suggesting that the real work of congress is to get on with solving racial injustice. You may see this as a tongue in cheek remark about the usual failed or incremental attempts to bring about racial justice or that it is a swipe to imply it is non existence issue.
We should consider that it is a third possibility. There are multiple ways in which white supremacists use coded language to pass their ideas around without drawing immediate condemnation. Words like White Pride or White Power are very obvious and would draw immediate condemnation. Instead, we started seeing the use of such phrases as "I am not ashamed to be white." The opposite of shame is, in fact, white pride.
Very few people in the general community had any idea what it meant directly when they started using it. But it could not escape their attention it was meant to separate the whites from every other citizens and they liked it. Because the ongoing story in white America is that they are being discriminated against by being forced to not discriminate against people. Part of the set of "White Grievances" Trump was forever playing to.
Simultaneously, they were agrieved to be lumped in with "racists". In this mind set, racism is exclusively about using actual derogatory words like the "N" word or purposefully refusing to serve someone due to their color, race or religion. The idea that their exclusively white enclave or work force or one where there is a token minority is somehow a part of racist construct is refused. There is one minority. Surely they can't be racist.
And that is the point of Van Der Veen's remark. It is the lament of white grievances. That there is no racism in America. It is all made up. Worse, that the real racism in America is the racism against white Americans. In fact, Trump forced his DOJ to file suit against Harvard for it's admissions practices as discriminatory against Whites and Asians.
Most people can be assured that the Asian part is chafe to avoid the outright and obvious link to white supremacist grievance mongering. It is also very well known that Asian communities have their own view of blacks, Hispanics and various other groups. Racism is alive and well in many communities. In fact, one of the core ideas of White Supremacists is that they are not racists or discriminating at all. All people in their place and a place for all people. Just not together. This is what made them agreeable to the supremacist ideas of groups like Al Qaeda.
These were and are all part and parcel of the very White Supremacist ideology that has taken ahold of the Republican Party. With that party's almost unanimous acceptance. Trump spent four years almost exclusively pushing for, giving cover to and even publicly stating white supremacist ideas. From Muslim Bans to deportation in mass quantities of largely brown immigrants to the Harvard Lawsuit. These are all White Supremacist demands and messages.
You can even understand the dismantling of the administrative state and installing 200 almost exclusively white "conservative" judges through this lens. If you want to prevent the state or make it hard to interfere with creating a dangerous white Supremacist rump state or simply prosecuting discrimination that allows White Supremacy to grow in power, what better way than kill all of the mechanisms?
Van Der Veen is the messenger. And he had no problem making this message about his contempt for racial justice publicly on the senate record.
People continue to imagine that these things are a "bridge too far". Conspiracy theories of a different sort that can never happen in America. And every time, they take that bridge, burn it down and move on to the next. We have our heads in the sand on this threat.
