The National Black Justice Coalition Applauds Biden’s Executive Order on Racial Equity
Washington, DC — Today, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) applauded President Biden’s new executive order on racial equity as a welcome move forward on dismantling government policies that have hamstrung Black people for generations.
NBJC applauds the following implications of the executive order:
- Stronger protections to ensure we all have a fair chance at affordable and quality housing and healthcare;
- Taking our tax dollars away from privatized prisons where there is a stock market incentive to incarcerate a disproportionate amount of Black people with the hope of addressing critical, unmet community needs
- Ensuring that the Indigenous people whose land our nation stole have more sovereignty over their land; and
- Combatting the increase of xenophobic attacks against our Asian and Pacific Islander siblings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NBJC is especially thankful for the provision removing tax dollars from private prisons. According to the American Journal of Public Health, LGBTQ+ people are three times more likely than heterosexual, cisgender people to be incarcerated. Additionally, members of the LGBTQ+ community make up 42% of the people in women’s prisons nationally, despite being less than 3-5% of the population. A disproportionate number of the people in those prisons are also Black.
“Removing our tax dollars from private prisons is a move in the right direction to decrease the financial incentives to incarcerate people whether they are innocent or simply too poor to get out, “ said David J. Johns, Executive Director of NBJC. “We believe this action will help to stop the over-policing of Black LGBTQ+ people, but more is needed to stop this completely.
“I applaud the speed with which the Biden/Harris administration is moving to repair the damage done by the previous administration and to address the diverse needs of Americans. We look forward to continued collaboration to honor the promises made in this executive order for legislative action as well as additional actions required to increase racial equity across our government and society.”
You can watch President Biden’s remarks here.
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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Contact: Cabot Petoia, cabot@megaphonestrategies.com, 828-899-9239
Shai Vaz, shai@megaphonestrategies.com, 347-266-2561
