• Democratic Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Thursday there is a connection between slavery and the pandemic. She was attempting to garner support for a bill that would establish a commission to study reparations.
• She insisted the commission be established by vote or executive order, arguing black people built the country. The congresswoman then linked slavery and COVID.
• “There is no doubt we have been impacted, that DNA in the trajectory of slavey to today,” she said. “For example, COVID. Black African-Americans have gotten COVID at a rate of nearly 1.5 times higher than that of white people, or hospitalized at a rate of nearly four times higher and three times likely to die. COVID hit us very desperately.”

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