They are prompting “very real conversations I didn’t think the country has ever really had because none of them are comfortable,” said Sydney Kamlager, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus in the California state Assembly.
While advocates in California have celebrated a string of recent legislative victories, lawmakers in New Hampshire refused to make an exception to their rules for a Democratic lawmaker who sought to introduce a bill examining racial bias and discrimination in the state’s corrections, judicial and police systems.
In Massachusetts, a Democratic lawmaker wants to overhaul state education spending to funnel more money to schools with high numbers of minority students.
On Thursday, the state Senate passed a bill to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement in the California State University system, the country’s largest four-year public university with 23 campuses and more than 481,000 students.
Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican, told reporters he agrees racism is a public health crisis and that his chamber is taking the proposed resolution seriously.
