State Demands

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Create Economic Freedom.

Black people have always been a critical engine of wealth creation in this country. We should feel the economic freedom we create. We must:

  • Protect and invest in Black expression, arts and culture.

  • Increase Washington’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

  • End Black disparities in the unemployment insurance system.

  • Create Black and IPOC economic recovery and development funding.

  • Build out high-speed internet access for education and economic opportunity.

  • Ensure comprehensive relicensing services.

  • Repeal I-200 and protect affirmative action.

 
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Invest in Generational Wealth.

Our ability to accrue wealth from our Black ingenuity and contributions benefits not only our community, but every community in Washington. We must:

  • Protect and invest in Black expression, arts and culture. 

  • Create fair access to business capital.

  • Reform the cannabis industry. 

  • Ensure fair financing for housing.

  • Ban the Box on tenant applications of disclosure of convictions, evictions, and bankruptcies.

  • Ban the use of credit scoring in auto, homeowner, renter, boat, and life insurance.

  • Climate justice restitution now.

 
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Black Equity in Criminal Justice.

We are intentionally kept out of the democratic process by over-incarceration and state-sanctioned poll taxes. Black people are barely 3% of the state’s overall population, but 18% of people incarcerated. Our community power is in prison. We demand it back. We must:

  • Protect and invest in Black expression, arts and culture.

  • Create police accountability for Black and IPOC communities.

  • End Black disparities in drug sentencing and decriminalize low-level drug charges.

  • Restore voting rights for incarcerated persons.

  • End transgender discrimination and other gender- or race-impacted biased crimes.

  • End youth incarceration; close Naselle.

  • End money bail and pre-trial detention.

  • End mandatory minimum sentencing.

  • Ensure vaccine availability in private prisons.

  • Protect and care for health needs of incarcerated persons.

  • Eradicate private prisons and close the Northwest Detention Center.

 
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Access to Health.

The fight for Black Lives is about the whole of Black life. We demand the right to care for our minds and bodies. We must:

  • Protect and invest in Black expression, arts and culture.

  • Ensure anti-racist healthcare access for Black and IPOC Washingtonians.

  • Ensure anti-racist LGBTQIA+ health services for Black and IPOC Washingtonians.

  • Create access to culturally relevant mental health services; ensure Medicaid parity so clinicians are appropriately compensated and services available.

  • Remove barriers to access to culturally responsive care for our elders.

  • Increase accessibility of telehealth services.

  • Extend Medicaid postpartum leave.

  • End state-sanctioned trafficking of Black children; preserve, reunify, and support families.

  • Ensure Black communities have food access and security for all.

  • Ensure access to culturally responsive childcare.

 
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Fully Fund Public Education.

When we erase the education inequities that harm Black youth from Day One, we say clearly: young Black minds matter. We must:

  • Protect and invest in Black expression, arts and culture in schools.

  • Institute a capital gains tax to fully fund education.

  • Invest in school-based community health centers.

  • Restore civics class.

  • Bring anti-racist, culturally relevant history to Washington state schools.

  • End to behavioral modification and in-school suspensions.

  • Divest from police and School Resource Officers in schools; reinvest in education.

  • Restore the pipeline of Black educators and administrators in public education.

 
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Create and Protect Affordable Housing.

An affordable home is our human right. We must:

  • Protect and invest in Black expression, arts and culture. 

  • Invest in affordable housing and protection for Black communities.

  • Extend the evictions moratorium until 2025; fully fund dispute resolution services.

  • End systematic racism in welfare eligibility and delivery.

 
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Honor the Treaties.

Indigenous Sovereignty and Black Liberation are intertwined. We must:

  • Recognize, respect and uphold tribal sovereignty.

  • Honor treaties and inherent rights.

  • Preserve and restore cultural sustainability.

  • Protect land, water and cultures.