Jackson Lee: Institutional Racism, Systemic Racism ‘Taints and Spoils’ the Way America Treats Minorities

Friday, during an appearance on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) reacted to Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) remarks during the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress earlier week.

Jackson Lee blamed institutional and systemic racism for some of the difficulties facing the nation’s minorities.

“Institutional racism and systemic racism taints and spoils the way that America treats, in one instance, African Americans and other instances minorities,” she said. “So, there are aspects of America’s laws, America’s structure as relates to the black community in particular and other communities that is racist. There are — certainly, what the president said is accurate about the American people, that the American people, I think, have called to goodness. That’s where they want to be.”

“They want to be in a nation that respects all people,” Jackson Lee continued. “But our system is such that it then allows Americans, people, to act in instances in a racist manner. And I believe that it is important to call that out and to be able to find ways that we can learn more about each other. And, as you well know, I’m carrying the bill H.R. 40, the commission to study and develop reparation proposals. That study, that commission will be open to all ideas for people to hear the history, understand the history, and I think we will get to a better place. But yes, action by America and actions by people in America have been racist.”

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