Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Calls out the Ubiquitous Evil of White Supremacy Inspires Continued Vigilance and Resistance

eye on the times

The annual legislative conference hosted each year by the Congressional Black Caucus boasted a lineup of heavy thinkers and hitters in social justice spaces. This year, speakers and panelists leveled serious critiques against legislators and policies that perpetuate everything from mass incarceration, homelessness, to the dismantling of access to capital, higher education, and a true and accurate presentation of American history. To view the National Town Hall, scan or click the QR code.

Put Some Steel in Your Backbone

LETICIA JAMES, New York Attorney General

As a black woman, and as the chief legal officer of one of the largest and most diverse states in the nation, I watch all of this unfold with a sense of outrage and growing concern. It’s clearly part of an effort to transform what is a vibrant and dynamic democratic country into an Ethno-nationalist, authoritarian state.

This right-wing push has been compared with what we have seen with the emergence of regressive governments in Turkey and Hungary, and I would say that there are also shades of apartheid South Africa. So, it must be resisted with everything that we have, with all of our being, with every element of our soul. The attacks on programs that acknowledge race, and racism are a clear effort to erase a chapter of American history, our history. The attacks on programs that acknowledge race, and racism are a clear effort to erase a chapter of American history, our history — to re-engineer facts — and it’s important that the injustices of the past not be forgotten.

Since we know what we are facing, we all carry the responsibility of standing up to it, and speaking truth to power, and putting some steel in your back bone, and walking into the courtrooms, or walking on those protest lines, or standing up to someone who refuses to see your humanity. And with all of the fiber of your being, and all of the ancestors flowing through your DNA, you need to tell them the truth.

Turnabout as Unfair Play

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, author, speaker, minister

The greatest crime a slave could commit was to be sleep; now we’re trying to be woke, and they’ve got a problem with it.

Banned History

KIMBERLY W. CRENSHAW, Academic, speaker, known for research and coining the term “Critical Race Theory,” and creator of the concept of “Intersectionality.”

Twenty-three states have passed bans on the way Black History can be taught. They have passed bans on the way things like the Tulsa race massacre can be taught. They have passed bans on the effort to teach what segregation was really about. They have passed bans on the ability to talk in real terms, not only about the history of enslavement, but its contemporary manifestations. Nearly half of American school children today go to a school in which there are limits now used by law to limit what they can learn about this country, and what they can learn about themselves.

. . . They’re trying to say that these laws are necessary to protect the sensibilities and the feelings of white school children.

What about the realities of our children? What about the fact that they’re being deprived of the ability to actually understand who we are as a people, how we came here, how we survived, and what we need to know, to understand, and to be about in order to protect ourselves in this moment.

As the World Turns

AYANA PARSONS, co-founder of the Fearless Fund, a venture capitalist fund being sued for racial discrimination by conservative strategist Ed Blum (widely known for his assaults on Affirmative Action).

There are three things that make this world go ‘round: money, power, and love. And we as black folks got a whole lotta of love, but I’m going to tell you what we don’t have. We don’t have enough power, and we d— sure don’t have enough money.

The reason why this suit, and what we are facing as the Fearless Fund, which is the first venture capital fund founded by women of color, investing in women of color — we are the most founded demographic of entrepreneurs; we’re starting businesses at a faster rate than anyone, yet the least funded — is, this is about money. This is about wealth creation, this is about the American Dream, and quite frankly what Ed Blum, who has sued the Fearless Fund, is trying to do is dismantle our economic freedom and our ability to pull ourselves by our bootstraps, and experience that which is the American Dream.

Let me tell [you] how this works in terms of the disparities. In 2022 more than $288 billion was deployed to entrepreneurs to start businesses. That is venture capital — that is seed money to start those businesses. Of that $288 billion, less than half of one percent (0.39) went to women of color, (black, Latina, Native, Asian American). Now, 0.13 % went to black women. So, when you look at these disparities knowing that we comprise more than 20% of the population, yet are receiving 0.13 percent as black women, or 0.39 as women of color in general, it is abysmal.

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