‘Why is she still permitted in Congress? Why is she still permitted in this country?’
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., suggested that America’s political and economic systems should be entirely razed due to their oppressiveness to minorities of color.
“We can’t stop at criminal justice reform or policing reform,” Omar said Tuesday during an outdoor press conference.
“We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system,” she continued. “We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, [and] in the air we breathe.”
True reform will means that the government must “guarantee homes for all” and pass the Green New Deal, “because we know that environmental racism is realm,” she claimed.
“As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality,” Omar continued. “So we cannot stop at [the] criminal justice system.
We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression wherever we find it.”
Omar’s comments immediately drew criticism from Republicans who reminded Omar that her duty is to protect the Constitution and the systems it created:
Some Democrats have denied that Omar was referring to the economy and the U.S.’s constitutional system of governance, but Omar’s fellow “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., confirmed that that’s exactly what she meant:
