Photo credit: Paul Goyette

Elizabeth Warren is the racial equity candidate.

I ran for local office as the only candidate in my election to run on a racial equity platform. Winning my election required a decentering of what I wanted to change and a centering of what others needed me to fight for. That’s what Elizabeth Warren is doing in her race, and it’s why I’m endorsing her today.

Most Americans only focus on politics at the federal level, and for good reason — the national news reports on it, and since D.C. politics is equivalent to a dumpster fire, it sucks all of oxygen out of the room, leaving no room to talk about state or local politics. But what happens in local politics is a microcosm of federal politics. And from what I’ve seen in local office, one core truth stands out from the rest: Americans are fighting against each other instead of fighting those at the top that truly hold the power in our country. This is by design, since the systems that govern us have benefitted white men and the rich and wealthy for far too long. And those in power have worked to exploit and further racial inequities in our society.

Racially equitable governing is about recognizing the differences in opportunity that exist due to our intersectional identities, but most importantly because of our race. And then accounting for those differences in our laws. Racially equitable governing requires conscious uncomfortability. It requires elected officials to recognize the power that we hold. And it requires the purposeful alignment of that power with those that have been purposefully denied it.

Thus far, the American experiment has failed consistently to recognize the generations of oppression that have been enacted in our country. Our laws have failed to account for the economic and generational wealth gap caused by the enslavement of Black people, the genocide of native peoples, the exclusion and internment of people of color, and the purposeful economic oppression against Black people and people of color by our government.

With each passing generation, we therefore relive the same erasure of history that the founding fathers of this nation purposefully enacted. In order to rewrite our laws so that we march towards a racially equitable society, we need every elected official to step into conscious uncomfortability and to align the power of the seat they hold with oppressed peoples in their communities. That’s exactly what Elizabeth Warren is doing. And her rebuttal to Pete Buttigeieg’s response in the New Hampshire debate convinced me of this. In her response, Warren calls for creating “race-conscious” laws — something I’ve never heard a presidential candidate explicitly call for.

It is beyond time for people in power to recognize the systemic oppression of people of color and Black people in our country. Elected officials must also be willing to let the community hold them accountable for their missteps and mistakes, something that Warren readily acknowledges. Accountability is the only way we as elected officials can stay committed to the fight for racial justice. For these reasons, and many more, I’m proud to endorse Elizabeth Warren today. LFG!

To donate and organize for Elizabeth, please check out her website here: https://elizabethwarren.com/