While growing up, my father tried to teach my brother and I that different races were inferior because of the color of their skin.

From an early age I learned to hide my black friends from my father. 

I learned to watch The Cosby Show with the remote in my hand and my little brother on lookout so we wouldn’t be caught and punished for watching a show with actors that my father would disprove of. 

My brother and I always knew something was wrong, my friends, classmates, and neighbors were black but I couldn’t play with them just because of the color of their skin. 

One thing I’ll always remember my dad telling me was that I could never marry a [racial slur directed at African Americans] because that's “The one thing you could do to make daddy stop loving you.” 

That’s not right. When I turned 18 I decided that his hate had no place in my life and so I struck off on my own and left his hatred behind me for good.

As I grew older, I learned that my father wasn’t alone and that racism was all around me. In Illinois death rates from COVID-19 were significantly higher for African-American and Hispanics populations than they were for white Illinoisans. Police officers across the state constantly find themselves in the headlines for the shooting of unarmed black and brown people, and black drivers and pedestrians in Illinois are close to three times more likely than whites to be stopped by police.

My campaign is fighting to put a stop to the racism and hatred that is eating away at our country. We are fighting for prison reform, for an end to mandatory minimums, and legislative action to legalize and decriminalize cannabis across the country, which would free nearly 40,000 wrongly imprisoned people with minor drug charges. I’m also fighting to expand our healthcare system by introducing legislation for Healthcare for All so that no matter the circumstances, every citizen of the United States has access to quality healthcare irregardless of their race. 

As I write this email, GOP state legislatures are hard at work on efforts to chip away at the Voting Rights Act and limit the voting rights of minorities across the country. When traditionally marginalized communities lose their already fragile voting rights it could very well spell the end of our Democracy.

John, if we lose our razor-thin majority in the house it will spell doom for voting rights, if we want to keep the Voting Rights Act alive and reinvigorated, we need a surge of grassroots support right now to help our campaign — can we count on you to rush a $5 contribution to the campaign today?