Rep. Tlaib and Activist Bernadette Atuahene Address Impeachment and #BlackHomesMatter

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has been calling for President Donald Trump to be impeached since the very beginning of her term in Congress. Now, the House is moving to impeach Trump for a second time to hold him accountable for inciting a violent coup attempt on Capitol Hill last week. 

Amid the chaos in Washington, Congresswoman Tlaib is also working to combat housing insecurity in Detroit. Tlaib, Dr. Cornell West, and Rev. Dr. William Barber II will hold a #BlackHomesMatter event on Wednesday that will be live-streamed on YouTube. You can register for the event here.

Listen: How to fix Detroit’s tax foreclosure crisis

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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Detroit representing Michigan’s 13th District, says that she and her colleagues continue to be briefed on what exactly happened during last week’s breach of the Capitol. She says that President Trump should have to answer for the violence that unfolded and that he poses an imminent risk to the country.

Going forward, Rep. Tlaib says It’s imperative to shed light on issues of racism and racist policy that have long been ignored. “It’s time that we have a reckoning… it’s hard to try to talk about healing without accountability or unifying when many of our colleagues still want to overthrow this election,” says Tlaib. 

A big part of addressing racism and racist policy, especially in Detroit, is through housing policy. Congresswoman Tlaib says the #BlackHomesMatter event she is participating in this week seeks to pressure local and state officials to address property tax foreclosures in Detroit. “We had the worst tax foreclosure crisis in the nation in Wayne County… it’s important to know that… we have a Black housing crisis on our hands… We need events like this to convene change agents,” says Congresswoman Tlaib. 

Bernadette Atuahene, an author, activist and professor at the Chicago Kent College of Law, says that studies show that Detroit homes have, and continue to be, over-assessed. The purpose of the #BlackHomesMatter event, Atuahene says, is to address the inequity in the property tax system. “The whole #BlackHomesMatter event is structured around asking Governor Whitmer…t o end these inflated tax property assessments… This isn’t just a Detroit problem, this is a national problem that is contributing to the racial wealth gap,” says Atuahene. 

Web story written by Clare Brennan.