Black. Lives. Matter.
I am so proud to be the Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania — a storied steel town I like to say built half the world.
But for years, Braddock has been a town where inequality lives. Like Flint, Michigan, it is just one of our country’s many communities of color that have experienced population loss, violence and a litany of injustices over the years.
The Black Lives Matter movement has brought to the national conversation many of the inequalities I’ve worked to confront here in Braddock. I’m so grateful it has because we need to realize that as far as the way America treats African-Americans, black lives don’t matter in this country.
The fact that a young African-American girl in one zip code could be born into extreme poverty by no fault of her own while children in the next zip code live a comfortable existence with no shortage of great health care, food, and schools — I can’t comprehend how we’ve brushed this under the rug.
A waste management service company chose a predominantly black and poor city like Chester to burn over a million tons of trash from New York City and expose residents to even more toxic pollution — what does that tell you about how much we value black lives in Pennsylvania?
We can’t keep pretending like these inequalities an entire group of American citizens have to face every day just don’t matter. These inequalities are systemic, and if we don’t act now, it’s only going to get worse.
If elected to the U.S. Senate, I plan on taking the fight to combat inequality in all of its forms to this bigger platform. It’s going to require a lot of hard work, and big ideas.
But if we can at least acknowledge how deeply embedded inequality is in this country, as we have here in Braddock, we’ve already taken a step in the right direction.
If you’re ready for less talk and more action on closing the massive inequality gap in this country that disproportionately impacts communities of color, join Team Fetterman today: https://johnfetterman.com/join
