Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan’s 13th congressional district, is a close political ally of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who constantly pushes for a massive multi-trillion ‘Green New Deal.’
Tlaib’s bank questioning appears to be a precursor to introducing regulation to micromanage which companies get loans.
“Are you familiar with the term environmental racism?” Tlaib went around asking different bank executives from Chase Bank, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Well Fargo.
The Michigan representative became frustrated after she learned that most of the executives did not know what environmental racism was or very familiar with it.
“I want you all to know environmental racism showed its face in a deadly way during the pandemic in my district, where more of my black neighbors died at a higher rate from COVID than any other community in Michigan, even though our black population in Michigan is less than 15 percent. The preexisting health conditions that come from living in the backyard of corporate polluters financed by your banks,” the representative stated.
“When it comes to racial justice, I see many of you having these commitments to just diversify your executive ranks. Good. But I think the American people really, truly want to know, what about the actions that are needed to invest in our communities like mine that you all profited off of that left us with more pollution, decay, and poverty. You all should know and be familiar with the term environmental racism, because for generations, black, brown, indigenous communities have seen the fossil fuel corporations use your banks to finance and construct oil and gas refineries, petrochemical plants and pipeline projects,” Tlaib continued.
“These polluting projects haven’t been built in wealthy neighborhoods. As you all know. They have been built on land and front line communities of color contaminated our air, polluting our water for generations to come,” Tlaib concluded in her first round of questioning.
For the second round of questioning, Tlaib asked the executives if they live near a refinery and demanded that they all address racial equity.
“What that means is understanding environmental racism and reversing decades of it and halting the damage that you all continue to invest in. Please, I dare you all to come to my district. I offered this even to my members of Congress. Come and smell what my neighbors smell, breathe what they breathe. Tell me then whether or not you will continue financing for oil refineries, because right now it is morally unacceptable,” Tlaib stated.
“If you truly believe in racial justice, then you would make sure that you and your team understand environmental racism in our country. That has been a term used by black and brown communities since the 70s and 80s. So with that, I just ask again, Chairwoman Waters, let’s please follow up and make sure these folks have the information they need to understand this term that is critically important to communities they are directly impacting in a negative way,” Tlaib concluded.
WATCH Squad Member Gets Heated After Questioning Bank Execs below:
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