Ayanna Pressley: It’s 2020 and we still don’t know what survivor justice looks like

[Jedi]

I’m here for an uncomfortable conversation. Not because it’s convenient. Not because it’s strategic. Because it’s necessary. I am a survivor. I am an elected official. I am not new to watching survivors bare their souls, and I am not new to being offered false choices in politics.

For generations, survivors and advocates have fought to shine a light on harassment and abuse. We have shown up, we have marched, we have told our stories. For those involved in the struggle for survivors’ justice, most of the work doesn’t take place in public, it is late night phone calls when trauma wraps us in a chokehold, it is tearful conversations whispered in confidence. It is the slow and steady work of helping each other heal and rebuild.

But when the experience does play out in public — as it has with Joe Biden and Tara Reade — we are called to examine an urgent and visceral question: what does an authentic path towards healing and justice look like for survivors in America?

We are in the throes of an election of the greatest consequence — one that will determine if core rights and tenets of democracy survive in this nation. The stakes cannot be overstated. But I have no patience for any person who tells me that is a reason to lower my voice. I reject the false choice that my party and our nominee can’t address the allegations at hand and defeat the occupant of the White House.

It’s 2020 and we still don’t know what survivor justice looks like

I’m here for an uncomfortable conversation. Not because it’s convenient. Not because it’s strategic. Because it’s necessary. I am a…

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