Sen. Cory Booker and Sen Kamala Harris Discuss Key Issues Facing Black America
Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris convened in a packed room of about 20 of their colleagues from the Senate on Wednesday (March 11) at the Capital. The legislators gathered before a panel of Black journalists hailing from niche media and mainstream outlets like BET, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
The senators immediately noted that the focus for this meeting is to discuss how badly it is needed for Black people to tell our own stories and to add the context of the Black experience to larger social and cultural contexts. The point, according to the pair, is that only 7.5% of newsroom staff are Black people, and this dearth of Black faces has a direct impact on the stories that are covered and the way that those stories are often told.
The California Senator started first by reminding the room of the time when a white journalist reported that she “screeched” at an event in which a number of her Howard University AKA sisters returned her skee wee greeting. Harris explained that it’s necessary to call out those organizations who hire people to cover candidates but don’t have measures in place that serve to help those reporters understand the backgrounds and experiences of the people they’re covering.
Harris went even further by calling out news outlets for not prioritizing hiring staff who understand how to cover Black people. She shared with the group, “I was asked, ‘You have family members who attended prestigious colleges like Stanford and Harvard, but yet you decided to go to Howard?’”
While lamenting about the overly political way that the Trump administration is handling its duties, Senator Booker shared his hope that getting more Black people in newsrooms would bring improvements in the way we talk about issues important to American families.
The senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer was also there and took the opportunity to address what he believes are the issues that aren’t being properly addressed by most reporters.
Schumer explained that while the current White House is concerning itself with reelection, the issues that concern most Black people today seem to have fallen out of most headlines, including the ideas of reparations.
“The Affordable Care Act is probably the top issue for Black voters. African-Americans are likely to have a high rate of preexisting conditions and not not have insurance,” said Schumer. “And, the protections of the ACA have only served to benefit all Americans, and especially Black voters.”
While Schumer talked about how health coverage and expanded medical services have improved the well being of Black families, there still not enough understanding of how badly things will go if this administration actually succeeds in its attempts to repeal the law most people call “Obamacare.”
Booker agreed, taking the opportunity to clarify that coverage of the stories around Black infant and maternal mortality, higher rates of prostate cancer and even connected issues of environmental racism aren’t being talked about enough.
This hearing, while admittedly light on conversation around changes in policy, was a necessary discussion. Harris and Booker led the conversation while their senate colleagues were available to take questions. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio chimed in and explained that as a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, he knows there’s a lot of work to be done admitting that “Redlining and banking regulations have caused Black families to not enjoy generational wealth,” and went on to call for banking reform in a way that recognizes the disparity for Black Americans.
Other topics including voting rights, police violence and the state of our government were discussed, but everyone’s mind was on the coronavirus and how this administration’s handling of the outbreak.
Senator Robert Casey, Jr. of Pennsylvania didn’t hold back when he told the room that President Trump and his coronavirus czar, Mike Pence are “incompetent” and that they “can’t be trusted” to be honest about the pandemic and its impact on marginalized and Black communities.
As the conclusion, Senators Booker and Harris took the time to talk about the necessity for Black journalists and writers to demand their place to tell stories that will impact all people. They agree that it’s not enough to only talk about criminal justice, but to also talk about holding all elected officials accountable for how they’re governing.
The Senators plan to continue their outreach to Black journalists and news outlets in the future, pledging that this is the first of many more conversations to come.
Jamila Bey is a journalist and speaker based in Washington, DC.
