Jill Tokuda: “Once again, it appears my colleagues fail to understand what critical race theory is. Critical race theory helps us…”

“Once again, it appears my colleagues fail to understand what critical race theory is. Critical race theory helps us understand the past, while DEI, as they have often been against, helps us chart the path forward to acknowledge and rectify the systemic racism that still shapes the present. Let's not conflate or confuse the two. Let me reiterate: Critical race theory is simply an academic and legal framework to recognize that systemic racism is part of our Nation's history. Yes, that is hard to hear, but sadly that is absolutely the fact and the case. Systemic racism continues, quite frankly, to affect our society and individuals in it to this very day. These are hard truths for my colleagues that cannot bear to hear it. However, there is no other way to explain the compromise enshrined for almost 80 years in our Constitution that count slaves as three- fifths of a person to determine matters like the number of seats allotted to States for this very body, the House of Representatives. There is no other way to explain the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Asian Exclusion Act, which banned immigration of Asian people to this country for decades.…”