Racial Equity & Equal Justice for All
Americans were horrified in the summer of 2020 at the unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans during encounters with police. These tragedies highlighted the deep-seated injustices that have long affected Black Americans and the denial of equal justice for all. Not only is our criminal justice system inequitable, but racial disparities continue to exist in many aspects of American life and our economy, including income, wealth distribution, housing, health care, and access to higher education. For too long this country has ignored the need to engage in real, serious policymaking focused on eliminating these disparities and ensuring that every American has an equal shot at “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Democrats are continuing to make equity and reducing disparities a focus of our legislative and economic agenda. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes equitable investments to address long-ignored disparities that prevent underserved communities from reaching their full economic potential. These include expanding access to broadband for 42 million Americans who currently lack reliable Internet access, funding upgrades to our water infrastructure to ensure Americans have clean drinking water, addressing legacy pollution, and expanding reliable public transit to underserved communities. During the 117th Congress, history was made when the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was passed and signed into law. This long-overdue law designates lynching as a hate crime under federal law, ensuring the full force of the government is brought to prosecute these monstrous crimes that have terrorized the Black community for over a century. House Democrats also passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in 2020 to root out racial biases in police departments and ban practices such as chokeholds and no-knock warrants. In the 118th Congress, Democrats will continue to we work with the Biden Administration to make equal justice, racial equity, and opportunity a reality for all Americans.
Many of us have nearly forgotten an era in which it was commonplace for a person to be denied employment because she was blind, or unable to attend a university because he was in a wheelchair—an era in which people with disabilities were second-class citizens.