U.S. must address reality of racial discrimination, inequality
On May 25, a handcuffed African American man died in Minneapolis police custody, sparking weeks of global protest. On that same day, a white woman in Central Park, without provocation, invoked an unjust police confrontation against a Black man. Though more than 1,000 miles apart, these events are connected by a thread of white supremacy and systemic racism — one that must, at last, be severed.
The past continues to haunt us — from police stops that turn fatal to the over-incarceration of communities of color. It also reaches the coronavirus pandemic raging across the nation.
More than 120,000 people already have died in our country due to COVID-19, a number that will, sadly, continue to grow. Every single one of those deaths is a tragedy.
We also must acknowledge that people of color are bearing the worst burdens of this crisis. In California’s East Bay, represented by Rep. Barbara Lee, the death rate for African Americans is more than twice the rate for whites, according to Alameda County data. In Santa Clara County, Latinos account for 42% of all cases, even though they are only 26% of the population. Across the country, Black, Native American, Pacific Islander and Latino communities have been hit extremely hard.
This disparity is woven into our country’s DNA. From the enslavement and Jim Crow oppression of African Americans, to genocide of Native Americans, to internment of Japanese Americans, to modern-day mass incarceration and the subprime mortgage crisis, discrimination and inequality have been constants in our history. We have never made a sincere effort to reconcile this truth with our story of a nation founded on the words “all are created equal.”
While we are all suffering from the worst health and economic crisis of our lifetimes, for low-income people and many people of color, this is a pandemic on top of a pandemic. Like HIV, cancer, diabetes or heart disease that disproportionately affect our communities, the disparate impact of COVID-19 is inextricably tied to the crises of poverty, lack of adequate medical care, environmental injustice and systemic inequality.
As millions of people around the world protest the murder of George Floyd, it is time for our nation to finally account for and accept our history of racial inequality and how that history continues to hold us back.
That is why we are calling on Congress to act on legislation introduced by Lee to establish the first United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation.
If this crisis has taught us anything, it is that truth matters, especially when it is difficult, or even shameful. When our leaders are incapable or unwilling to face the truth of our past and the challenges before us, the consequences are literally life or death.
The purpose of the commission is to properly document and acknowledge the reality of racial discrimination and inequality, both past and present, and to finally leave behind the belief in a hierarchy of human value based on attributes such as skin color and facial features. The commission will examine the generational effects of slavery and institutional racism against people of color and how our history impacts laws and policies today. It is an opportunity to provide the awareness and understanding that we desperately need as a nation to embrace our common humanity and permanently eliminate persistent racial inequities.
As this pandemic has shown us all too clearly, truth, racial healing and transformation are a matter of survival for countless Americans. Only by understanding our past, and confronting the errors that still haunt us today, can we truly move forward as a people and a country.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, represents California’s 13th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Wade Henderson is the former president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.