Lawmakers Thompson, Lee tie history of racial injustice to Floyd killing

Rep. Mike Thompson, a moderate Democrat who represents a swath of Wine Country, is a Vietnam War veteran who chairs a House task force pushing for universal background checks on gun sales. Rep. Barbara Lee, a liberal Oakland-based Democrat, is well known as the only member of Congress who voted against authorizing the use of force in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a measure that passed the House on a 420-1 vote.

Thompson, 69, represents a sprawling district from Lakeport down to the northern tip of Contra Costa County, including Santa Rosa, that is 62% white, 29% Latino and 6% African American. The compact urban district in northern Alameda County represented by Lee, 73, is 44% white, 24% Latino and 18% African American.

But the two veteran lawmakers also have a lot in common. Both served in the California Legislature before they were elected to Congress in 1998 and have not faced a serious challenge since in Democrat-dominated districts. Their districts, though different in culture, commerce and landscape, are separated only by the city of Richmond and its small neighbors in Contra Costa County.

The two longtime friends sat side-by-side, virtually speaking, on Thursday in Thompson’ seventh town hall meeting conducted via Zoom since the coronavirus shutdown was imposed 11 weeks ago.

The topic was a House resolution introduced Thursday by Lee - with 112 cosponsors, all Democrats - calling for establishment of the first United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation.

The commission would examine the effects of slavery, institutional racism and discrimination against people of color and “how our history impacts laws and policies today,” according to a statement from Lee’s office.

Thompson opened the session with a reference to the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police, igniting days of protests mixed with violence and property damage.

The crime “has rocked the nation from one corner to the other ... a reminder of the discrimination that some people in our community face every day,” he said.

“We’re in a pandemic upon a pandemic,” Lee said, saying the coronavirus and discrimination both impact the African American and Latino populations disproportionately due to their economic and health status. “We see a convergence in all these injustices that are coming together.”

The commission’s work would inform the public of America’s history of injustice to minorities, she said.

“Most people don’t know what has taken place, and they don’t see the connection between the past” and Floyd’s death, Lee said.

Responding to a question about President Donald Trump’s use of military force against protesters near the White House, Thompson, whose son is a law officer, said there is “no way in God’s green Earth that this president or any other president should be able to take that kind of action.”

Thompson suggested that Republican lawmakers have begun speaking out about it, and Lee said, “They still haven’t spoken loudly enough.”

Asked how she would measure the commission’s success, Lee said it would include a reduction in “police murders” and a reduced racial disparity in the damage from COVID-19.

Marijuana charges against young people should be expunged from their records to “help them pick up their lives and move on,” she said.

The technology industry should “become more inclusive by hiring people who look like me” and the “wealth gap” should be narrowed, Lee said, noting that more than half of black workers make barely the minimum wage.

“Bigotry and prejudice is alive and well in every corner of my district and your district (and) in this country,” Thompson said. “We all need to speak out when we see it or hear it.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.