Calling on Elected Officials for Systemic Change
Dear Vice President Biden, Governor Cuomo, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Representative Jeffries, and Mayor de Blasio,
I trust that all of you have expressed horror, regret, and the need for white and non-black POC to join in the fight against police brutality and systemic racism. But as you very well know, in addition to individual and collective action, we need deep systemic change. I’m calling on each of you, as my elected (and nominated) representatives, to give your full support to platforms that unapologetically support black people. Not just policies that will benefit black and brown communities, poor communities, immigrant communities, etc, but true reparations for slavery, Jim Crow, and the continued systemic disenfranchisement that black people experience in the United States of America.
Here’s what I want to see:
Cash payments to every black person whose parents or grandparents were born in this country. For everyone who will never know their ancestors’ country of origin.
Budget cuts in police forces nationwide. Police don’t need riot gear and armored vehicles. Police budgets should then be pegged to education and/or community programs.
Every black or brown person in jail for a marijuana charge in the past 30 years gets their sentence commuted, and an end to cash bail.
Investment in every single neighborhood that was redlined in the 70s and 80s and infrastructure projects in rural black areas.
Federal research dedicated to improving black maternal health outcomes. And while we’re at it, BROWN BAND-AIDS.
Greater bank regulation so black and brown people can get non-predatory loans.
The confederate flag MUST designated as a hate/terror symbol; Confederate monuments relegated to museums, and civil rights monuments erected in their stead.
Bonus: retroactively give Beyoncé Album of the Year for Lemonade and make Idris Elba the next James Bond.
I invite my fellow black Americans to add to this list of how we can begin to properly atone for 400 years of violence, and start to create a more equitable future.
Vice President Biden, Governor Cuomo, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Representative Jeffries, and Mayor de Blasio, I urge you to show your leadership on this issue by unequivocally supporting these policies and putting the full weight of your offices towards achieving them.
Thank you,
Adelle McElveen — Brooklyn, NY
(adapted from my Facebook post)
Note: Updated on June 4 to change title
