Rep. Omar: ‘I Know What It Means for People to Just See Me as a Black Person and to Treat Me as Less than a Human’

‘We’re here to stay and represent the voices of people who have been silenced for many decades’

From Feb. 28, 2019:

REP. ILHAN OMAR: No, we know what hate looks like. We experience it every single day. I have colleagues who talk about death threats. I have colleagues who talk about death threats. And sometimes—there are cities in my state where the gas stations have written on their bathrooms, “Assassinate Ilhan Omar.” I have people driving around my district looking for my home, for my office, causing me harm. I have people, every single day, on Fox News and everywhere, posting that I am a threat to this country. So I know what fear looks like. The masjid, the masjid I pray in, in Minnesota, got bombed by two domestic white terrorists. So I know what it feels to be someone who is of faith that is vilified. I know what it means to be of someone who is of ethnicity that is vilified. I know what it feels to be—

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!

REP. ILHAN OMAR: —of a race, of a race—right? Like, I am an immigrant, so I don’t have the historical drama that some of my black sisters and brothers have in this country. But I know—I know what it means for people to just see me as a black person and to treat me as less than a human.

And so, when people say, “You are bringing hate,” I know what their intention is. Their intention is to make sure that our lights are dimmed, that we walk around with our heads bowed, that we lower our face and our voice.

But we have news for people. You can call us any kind of name. You can threaten us any kind of way. Rashida and I are not ourselves. Every single day we walk in the halls of Congress, we have people who have never had the opportunity to walk. They’re walking with us. So, we’re here. We’re here to stay and represent the voices of people who have been silenced for many decades and generations. And we’re here to fight for the people of our district, who want to make sure that there is actual prosperity—actual prosperity—being guaranteed, because there is a direct correlation between not having a clean water and starting endless wars. It’s all about the profit and who gets benefit of it. There’s a direct correlation—there is a direct correlation between corporations that are getting rich and the fact that we have students that are shackled with debt. There is a direct correlation between the White House and the people who are benefiting from having detention beds that are profitized.

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