Racism in the Kansas Legislature (KSLEG) is subtle but powerful. They don’t even have to see us or acknowledge us. Our issues and positions are largely overlooked.
About a year ago, the Kansas City Star published a story about whether Black legislators in Kansas and Missouri face racism. I’ll end the suspense.
We do!
A racist ideology seems to be ingrained in the foundation of most members of our Republican party.
In my short tenure, White Republican legislators tried to stop one of my speeches from the floor. After the attempted unsuccessful control of my speech, they followed up with a threatening letter. This year, they refused me the services of an intern.
Beyond my personal experiences with racism, race and the impacts of racist legislation cause ongoing problems in Black and Brown communities.
Since taking office, I have worked diligently to scan every bill for racial components.
Here are a few of my observations on racist legislation or discussion in the KSLEG.
First, a Republican-led Legislature has had four years to pass the CROWN Act and protect the rights of B&B people to wear our natural hair and has chosen again this year to ignore us.
Second, a bill has been introduced increasing the penalty for individuals protecting themselves from being bitten by a police dog released on them as a suspected criminal.
There is no consideration in this bill, no penalties outlined, for police when they unjustly harm B&B people with these dogs. America’s history of using police dogs to disfigure, punish, and maim peaceful protesters has created historic scars this bill should take into consideration.
Third, while other states are working to find ways to help people get out of jail by reducing requirements for bail, the Kansas Legislature is working on a bill to make it harder for individuals to make bail.
The Bail Agents Association has introduced a bill eliminating a bondsman’s ability to take payments on bonds or less than 10% on bonds, something that smaller – often B&B – bondsmen would offer as a way of “working” with the incarcerated who are too often cash and asset poor.
This is as much a plan to get tight on B&B bondsmen and drive them out of the market, as it is a plan to keep the poor in jail. Freedom should never be directly tied to wealth.
Finally, legislation is being discussed to legalize medical cannabis that will include a state system for licensing individuals for growing and distributing marijuana.
While most states have taken major strides to ensure African-Americans – who have borne the brunt of the nation’s war on drugs – are given special consideration for participation in the legalized marijuana industry, discussion by the KSLEG is mute on the subject.
Instead, the discussions around medical-use cannabis include opportunities of a different kind; opportunities to administer more severe penalties, fines, and jail time for individuals caught participating in the industry of marijuana without a license, the very licenses that will likely be designed in a manner that make them unattainable by B&B business.
Once again, B&B people get left out.
Not providing space for the B&B community to prosper from an industry that has incarcerated more B&B people than any other is a crime in itself.
We can do better, Kansas.