Pressley also acknowledged the impact on her family and staff - many of whom are young people of color. I don’t want to be in a negotiation with myself of, ‘I want to say this, I want to write this law, but I’m fearful of what that will invite.’” It could make you stagnate and just stop altogether.
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And it is soul crushing and depleting - and it is effective, because it could make you stand still. “You will go down a rabbit hole, with the most venomous characterizations of you from right-wing media, from the top brass of the GOP, and you will believe it. “What happens is that you start to internalize it,” she explained to The 19th. In January 2020, Pressley announced that she has alopecia, revealing her bald head for the first time in an emotional video. The attacks have also taken a personal toll. Though they ended up not needing a Massachusetts reelection campaign headquarters because of COVID-19, when they explored their options earlier in 2020, there was concern about having an office on the first floor, and discussions about the number of exits, having the option of a panic button and getting frosted windows.Īccording to her staff, the threats since this summer have numbered “into the thousands.” Her appearances already curtailed in the pandemic, Pressley said she and her staff took additional precautions following the MSNBC interview in August, like hiring additional security and not promoting appearances or only doing so at the last minute. Pressley has used her platform for much of this year to speak out about the inequalities laid bare by the dual pandemics - first, of the COVID-19 crisis disproportionately killing Black and Latino people and the attendant economic impact on women and communities of color - and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others that urged Americans into the streets in protest by the millions across the country. Elizabeth Warren until Warren suspended her campaign two days after Super Tuesday.) (She stumped for then-Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. It was the beginning of an onslaught of acrimony that would follow Pressley throughout her first term and as her public profile has risen. President Donald Trump took to Twitter on July 14, 2019, to tell Pressley, who was born in Cincinnati, and her fellow lawmakers to “go back and fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” The viral thread soon dominated the news cycle, though the remarks were roundly condemned as racist misinformation (all but Omar, a Somalian refugee who became a naturalized citizen at 17, were born in the United States). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the three other freshman members of “The Squad.”īut the spotlight these women enjoy also has its drawbacks. Pressley was governing with women she considered her sisters in democracy, including Minnesota Rep. She inherited the office space of her “shero,” Shirley Chisholm, the iconic New York legislator who was the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968 and the first Black woman to run for president as a major party candidate in 1972.
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Pressley was elected in 2018 as one of the record number of women, many of them pioneers, who would make up the most diverse Congress in U.S. In celebrating milestones like the unprecedented number of women of color serving at the highest levels of government, what can get lost in the excitement is the unprecedented amount of vituperation that comes with it, she said. Pressley spoke exclusively to The 19th about this experience as she heads into her second term after winning reelection in a year that was marked by both historic firsts and a tipping point on race. “We made a new wall, one with all of the notes of encouragement and love that we get from people around the country.” “That wall staring back at our staff wasn’t healthy,” Groh said. Now, she said, there are so many that she needs a binder to hold them.
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Groh said she used to print out mugshots sent by Capitol Police and post them on the office walls so that the team could memorize their faces.
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“The reality is that these death threats, violent phone calls, the need for private security hires, coordination with Capitol Police and the FBI, this has become part of our daily negotiation of how to serve the people who sent us to Washington,” said Sarah Groh, Pressley’s chief of staff.
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The threatening rhetoric directed at her and her closest colleagues has taken a toll. She has had to balance her duties with her personal safety - calls to her office about transportation, public safety and education were dwarfed by messages laced with racism and misogyny. But, she said, the attacks against her have become increasingly threatening, taking a more serious and dangerous tone after her MSNBC appearance this summer triggered death threats. In the two years since Pressley was sworn in as the first Black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, she has fought her share of battles.