Issue Position: Racial Justice

Issue Position

"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 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'll continue 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.

BREAKING THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE

Private prisons are feeding off the failures of our communities and determining where they will build based on the third-grade scores of children in the area. That is unacceptable. Rather than putting Federal dollars in imprisonment, we must invest in eliminating the opportunity gap for kids of color in our schools. This starts with banning suspension below the 6th grade and instead investing in restorative justice and alternative efforts that have been proven to keep kids in school and out of prison.

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 will fight 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 will fight for raising 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 will also work to stop the tremendous concentrations of wealth that prevent minorities from owning homes, saving for retirement or getting health insurance. She will push to invest in jobs specifically targeted at our most disadvantaged young people across America, as well as pushing to invest back into rebuilding our infrastructure through a green-jobs economy.

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