U.S. Rep. Jahanna Hayes says we as a nation are not dealing honestly with the structural and systemic racism that persists.
The events of the past week have been difficult to say the least, and I have gone through a roller coaster of emotions as hundreds of thousands have suffered and died from COVID-19, and race riots are erupting throughout this nation. Seeing the life leave George Floyd at the hands of police and the ensuing scenes that have played out around the country and the world have left me heartbroken. In just one week I have felt sadness, fear, anger, disgust, anxiety, embarrassment and despair.
Yet somehow, I am approaching a place of reflection and hope, and I must imagine that we have all come to a place of empathy.
My perspective on the issue of race and the justice system is multi-faceted. I am the mother of four black children, three of them being young men. I am the wife of a black man who is a police officer in the community where he was born and raised. I am the first African American Congresswoman in Connecticut, representing a district that is overwhelmingly white.
Many of my constituents will never understand the intersection of my lived experiences or the depths of my current anguish, but I hope they will try
Words have power, and I am acutely aware of the power of my own words when addressing racial disparity. But the death of yet another unarmed African American man, in broad daylight with cameras rolling, at the hands of police is wrong — hard stop.
My sentiments are not anti-police; they are anti police brutality. Yet, this
is about so much more than police brutality.
What has erupted in our country is not simply a reaction to police misconduct or the events of the last few weeks; it is about racial injustice. Centuries of oppression are playing out in the form of peaceful protests and angry looting.
What some people are missing about the underlying causes of the protests is that this is not simply about police brutality. It is about the fact that we as a nation are not dealing honestly with the structural and systemic. racism that persists in almost every part of our lives.
As a country, we must seriously reckon with our centuries-long history of mistreating people of color. It is time we admit that we did not fix racial issues with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the election of our first African American president. Our black
children still live in segregated neighborhoods and attend underfunded schools. Discriminatory practices have shut their parents out of home ownership for decades.
Their brothers and sisters have been thrown in jail for drug offenses that are now the foundation for thriving industries in multiple states. And our children are left to process images showing them that the most basic things like jogging, birding, playing music, going to church, walking with Skittles, getting pulled over, asking for help or simply breathing could end fatally for them. This has resulted in an intolerable system crying out for reform.
Those who continue to deny that systemic and structural inequities towards people of color exist are complicit.
Again, I recognize the power of my words, and before they are over analyzed, pause and just hear me. This is how the black community feels — our pain is legitimate. The “conversation” my husband and I had with our sons does not just extend to adolescents. My husband, with 23-plus years on the police force, still puts both hands on the wheel, turns on the interior lights and instructs us not to move suddenly during a traffic stop. If our children are late getting home, losing time, juvenile mischief or even a minor car accident is not our greatest fear. This does not mean others should feel personally defensive, guilty or shamed, or that only black lives matter. What it does mean is that there is a stark contrast in our American experiences, and we must be honest in order to bring about change.
We all have the capacity to make the conscious choice right now to comply with or change the racial power structure of this nation. But to truly have equal justice under the law, we must first expose those places where justice is being denied — not just criminal justice, all justice.