Cori Bush calls for Juneteenth holiday ‘and reparations, Black liberation’
"Black liberation in its totality must be prioritized,” Congresswoman Cori Bush said.
Democrat Cori Bush of St. Louis continues to call for reparations and an end to police violence amid the news coming out about Juneteenth becoming a national holiday.
Bush took to Twitter to share this message on Thursday.
“It’s Juneteenth AND reparations. It’s Juneteenth AND end police violence + the War on Drugs. It’s Juneteenth AND end housing + education apartheid. It’s Juneteenth AND teach the truth about white supremacy in our country. Black liberation in its totality must be prioritized.”
Bush, along with other lawmakers and community members, wants to see more action taken to address the severe issues she mentioned affecting Black people across the country.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden officially made Juneteenth a national holiday by signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.
While some folks are celebrating and honoring this moment, people are also calling on lawmakers to step up and do more as the fight for justice and liberation continues. Folks took to social media to share their concerns.
“We can’t allow Juneteenth to become a holiday while simultaneously passing bills to prevent teachers from teaching our children the reality of our country’s history. That’s crazy,” one person wrote on Twitter.
People are calling on the president and lawmakers to put forth the same energy they used to pass the Juneteenth measure into passing voting rights and police reform bills.
Comedian, actor and radio host D.L. Hughley also criticized the contradicting notions of passing some measures and avoiding others, drawing support from thousands of people.
“Wayment! They make #Juneteenth a federal holiday but don’t want teachers to talk about slavery? So when kids ask why are they celebrating, what do you tell them? #TeamDl,” he wrote on twitter.
Bush is all too familiar with using her platform to amplify the concerns within the Black community.
As theGrio previously reported, the congresswoman called American “racist AF” in a tweet earlier this year.
“Our communities wouldn’t have needed to spark a national movement to save Black lives if America weren’t racist AF,” Bush wrote.
Bush represents the 1st congressional district of Missouri, which includes all of St. Louis and a large part of the city’s northern suburbs. She recently praised a historic vote to defund the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
Earlier this year, Mayor Tishaura Jones announced plans to cut $4 million from the department’s budget and eliminate 98 currently vacant officer positions.
The $4 million cut from the $171 million police budget will be used to fund affordable housing, homeless services, victims’ support programs and civil rights enforcement.
In a statement, Bush praised the decision, saying, “For decades, our city funneled more and more money into our police department under the guise of public safety, while massively underinvesting in the resources that will truly keep our communities safe. Previous administrations spent more per capita on policing than all comparable cities, building a police force that is larger than that of any city comparable to St. Louis.”
“But even as more and more money has gone into policing,” she continued, “the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department continues to be the deadliest police force in the nation, year after year — all while violence in our communities continues to skyrocket.”
While Bush praised those steps by the mayor, she continues to advocate for more work to be done to address problems that continue to hurt disenfranchised communities.
As she said in her tweet, “Black liberation in its totality must be prioritized.”
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