John,
As of today — on the eve of Joe Biden's inauguration, and the final day of the Trump presidency — there are 400,000 dead from Covid-19 in our country alone, with deaths disproportionately affecting Black and brown people.
Almost one year later, tens of millions of Americans are still unemployed or underemployed. Many are still struggling to survive and put food on the table. Students and teachers aren't being supported or prioritized enough as they're nearly halfway through another school year.
On top of this, we’re still recovering from the aftermath of a violent insurrection at the Capitol, fueled by Trump's seditious intentions and powered by his mob of white nationalist supporters. Major parts of Washington are restricted ahead of tomorrow's inauguration.
Despite all of this, so many of our country's leaders — including some of my colleagues in Congress — continue to tout the narrative of American exceptionalism.
But make no mistake, John. This is exactly who we are, and we must accept it.
Throughout our country's history, any amount of social progress has always been accompanied by white backlash, particularly from the people who are afraid of the multi-racial democracy that we are becoming.
The violent attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6th is an example of such. The day after we elected our first Black and Jewish U.S. Senators from Georgia, we saw an attack on the Capitol.
This is a new baseline, and now we have to deal with the issue of white nationalism and white supremacy at its core — in police departments, in housing, in medicine, in our schools, in all of our institutions.
We cannot allow our government to continue to uphold a racist and unjust system that allows police brutality, mass incarceration, and white supremacy to run rampant.
I see our new administration and our new Congress as a chance for us to start over. It's an opportunity for us to begin at a new baseline and stop spreading the myth of American exceptionalism, so we can start building the multi-racial democracy we deserve.
We must continue to listen to the people and challenge one another as we develop and organize towards long-term solutions for Black and brown communities, for working class communities, for all communities — not just the white and wealthy.
Peace and love,
Jamaal Bowman
