Indivisibles,
We want to talk to you about racial justice and how we’re going to address
these systemic issues head-on. Last week, we emailed you about how Senate
Democrats introduced their versions of the D.C. statehood bill, S. 51, and
the For the People Act, S. 1. These two bills are central to undoing many
of the racist legacies of our founding institutions, giving us the chance
to make our democracy more equitable and representative of the people. But
we need you to help us make it happen:
[ [link removed] ]Call your senators now, and then click through to call your
representative.
Demand your senators support D.C. statehood and the For the People Act,
and then move swiftly to hold hearings and vote on these bills, without
letting Mitch McConnell’s Jim Crow filibuster get in the way. Then, keep
reading for a deeper dive on how D.C. statehood and the For the People Act
will help us move towards racial justice.
Rigged from the start -- democracy reform and racial justice
Since our founding, our democracy has been rigged to benefit rich, white
men. While we’ve made progress over time, these racist institutions and
policies, and the people who uphold them, continue to exist and grow.
[ [link removed] ]America has a long history of robbing communities of color of the right
to vote, and it continues today -- people of color delivered a resounding
victory to Democrats in 2020, and Republicans are responding by attempting
to implement even more restrictive, racist voting laws to deny them
political power. In the last days of 2020, Trump challenged votes in the
states that Biden won -- targeting major cities like Detroit, Milwaukee,
Philadelphia, and Atlanta, all of which have significant Black
populations. In the last month, Republican state legislators across the
country filed more than 100 voter suppression bills aimed at making it
more difficult to vote and reducing the electorate in areas that delivered
wins for Democrats.
Trump and the GOP brought into sharp focus our rigged democracy, and how
it has disproportionately targeted (and excluded) Black, Indigenous, and
people of color (BIPOC), whether in the form of voter suppression,
gerrymandering, overt systematic disenfranchisement, corruption, or big
money in politics. Both intentional and foundational, these structures
have maintained the white, male, wealthy power throughout our nation’s
history, but we have a limited window to fundamentally change how our
democracy functions.
D.C. statehood and the For the People Act are just two ways that we can
begin to change our democracy, and they cut across these racial justice
issues in a substantial way. In particular, D.C. statehood would
enfranchise more than 700k residents, a plurality of whom are Black,
giving equal representation to these residents and overturning hundreds of
years of voter suppression and racism.
This bill would also rectify the unique oppression that D.C. residents
face as a result of their territory status. Most recently, [ [link removed] ]the
right-wing, white supremacist coup at the Capitol left the mayor of D.C.
unable to respond to the violence in her city. The federal government
(meaning Trump at the time) controls the D.C. National Guard, which Trump
took full advantage of by declining support for hours. Contrast this with
Trump’s militarized, violent response to D.C.’s peaceful Black Lives
Matter protests over the summer, and you see how a lack of statehood can
be weaponized against the residents of D.C.
D.C. statehood would also add two new senators who would work to rebalance
the Senate from entrenched minority control. The current makeup of the
Senate is biased towards largely white, low population areas -- this was
intentional, as the Senate was designed to give a disproportionate amount
of power to a small contingent of Southern whites who wanted to maintain
the institution of slavery. That racist legacy persists today and
compounds the lack of representation in the modern Senate. By 2040, half
of America’s population will live in just eight states, giving outsized
political power to an ever-shrinking minority. This means that BIPOC and
people living in more populous areas receive less representation in the
Senate, and making D.C. a state would begin to counteract this bias.
Achieving a more racially equitable, inclusive democracy takes a lot of
work, but these two bills will make significant headway in tackling some
of the most racist institutions and policies that still exist today.
Here’s how you can make a difference: [ [link removed] ]Use our new peoples' whip count
to see where your members of Congress land on these key bills. Then make
sure to [ [link removed] ]call your senators and demand they support S. 1 and S. 51, work
swiftly to hold hearings on both bills, and send them to the floor for a
vote -- without letting the filibuster stand in the way of passage. Then
follow up by [ [link removed] ]calling your representative too.
In solidarity,
Indivisible Team
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