Some People

“This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America!” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shouted as she slapped her notebook against the podium in the House of Representatives last week, speaking out against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to remove Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush, all gave fiery speeches denouncing Speaker McCarthy’s decision. It is strange that none of these women spoke out against McCarthy when he removed Congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from their intelligence committee positions. There was no outrage from any of them in 2021 when Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Green was removed from her committees. There was only outrage when a woman of color was removed.

It is interesting that none of these women of color have spoken a word about Eunice Dwumfour, the black female politician from New Jersey who was gunned down in her car this past Wednesday – the day before Ocasio-Cortez’s speech. Eunice Dwumfour was described as “a beautiful soul, who loved everybody… She never said no. She would take her jacket off to give it to you.” But no one seems to care about her death. Barack Obama and Al Sharpton will not give eulogies at her memorial service. We would have thought that Representative Ocasio-Cortez would have at least mentioned Ms. Dwumfour’s death because she was a woman of color who represented a community which is a mere 45 miles away from her district. But none of these women of color who were giving speeches about the targeting of women of color in this country mentioned the assassination of another woman of color politician the day before.