Racial Justice
"To achieve racial justice we must understand the history of racism in our country and our failures to acknowledge that history or deal with its modern symptoms. Today, as our country wrestles with the legacy of racism, we have to step up as progressives—electeds and advocates alike—and be willing to be part of the solution by articulating and then fighting fiercely for our racial justice platforms."
A HISTORY OF STANDING UP FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Pramila Jayapal has been fighting for racial justice her whole life. As a woman of color and an immigrant, she knows exactly what it means to be in the minority. She has fought against bigotry and discrimination, working in our public schools to provide education and training around bullying and harassment. In the State Senate, she passed a bill to invest $5.25 million in pre-apprenticeship programs specifically for people of color and women. She introduced a bill requiring an equity impact analysis of education proposals to determine disproportionate impact on kids of color. She also introduced an initiative to proactively change racist names on state lands.
STOPPING VIOLENCE AGAINST COMMUNITIES OF COLOR
Pramila has worked to reform the policing system in Seattle—serving on police accountability panels and helping lead the coalition that brought the US Department of Justice in to Seattle to investigate the Seattle Police Department for biased policing. She is continuing to fight to demilitarize our police forces, provide strong oversight on use of force, train officers on de-escalation, and address the culture of racism that permeates too many of our institutions, including our police force. Pramila is a strong supporter of De-Escalate Washington's Initiative 940 to reform Washington's deadly force statute and invest in de-escalation training for our police.
RESTORING VOTING RIGHTS
Pramila has been a strong champion of voting rights, introducing a bill for Automatic Voter Registration and working as the lead champion in the Senate to pass the Washington Voting Rights Act. In Congress, she is fighting to restore and expand the Federal Voting Rights Act, re-enfranchise the more than two million ex-felons who are African-Americans and paid their debt to society, and stop the systematic efforts to disenfranchise minority voters by requiring IDs or gerrymandering voting lines.
ENSURING ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Pramila is fighting to raise the federal minimum wage so that the disproportionate number of workers of color in low-wage jobs can be paid fairly for their work - she is proudly co-sponsoring H.R. 15, the Raise the Wage Act! She's working to stop the tremendous concentrations of wealth that prevent minorities from owning homes, saving for retirement or getting health insurance. And she is pushing to invest in jobs specifically targeted at our most disadvantaged young people across America, as well as investing back into rebuilding our infrastructure through a green-jobs economy.