WASHINGTON — As she nears her retirement from Congress, Brenda Lawrence knows her work bringing Jews and blacks together is not finished. Her latest reminder: Kanye West.
Michigan Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence at a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool/Getty)
When Lawrence, a Detroit area Democrat, spoke earlier this month via Zoom from a glass-enclosed porch at her home overlooking a farm, she wanted to focus on the accomplishments of the Congressional Caucus on Black Jewish Relations, which she launched in 2019.
But West’s threat to go “death con 3 on Jewish people” was still fresh.
“I’m not afraid to stand up and tell Kanye West, who is a huge influencer in America, ‘what you’re doing is wrong,” she said, anger creeping into her voice. “And mental illness is not an excuse for racism for misinformation that stokes and encourages those who have this hate [to say], ‘Yes, I can do this’ and there’s no consequences and keep ratcheting it up.”
The 64-member caucus has focused on establishing a bipartisan baseline of what is anti-Semitic or racist, setting down red lines at a time of increasing polarization.
There is currently only one Republican, Lee Zeldin of New York, and he is running for governor and about to leave Congress either way.
Lawrence is retiring because her district was subsumed by another one this year.
“We have as a caucus stood up and said, ‘We see what we’re doing we’re calling you out and hopefully we’ll confront you to the point where you will recognize what you’re doing is wrong,’” Lawrence said.
In addition to anti-Semitism, another agenda item for her has been what she sees as the reluctance of her Republican colleagues to call out anti-black racism.
Lawrence said she launched the caucus after chatting on the House floor with John Lewis, the late congressman from Georgia and civil rights leader. She asked him why he never expanded his annual dinner for Jewish and black House members into a formal caucus.
“John Lewis said, ‘No, there’s never been a Black Jewish Caucus, but there should be one,’” she said.
She asked Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, to help her establish the caucus and also consulted with Jewish organizations.
The caucus was launched in June, 2019 at the annual conference of the American Jewish Committee. It included Lawrence, Wasserman Schultz, Lewis and Republicans Lee Zeldin, who is Jewish, and Will Hurd of Texas, who is black.
Despite having no significant tangible lawmaking victories of its own, the group’s real work has been done in a number of forums they co-led in person and virtually, with grassroots members of both communities, Lawrence and Wasserman Schultz said.
Lawrence argued the caucus was instrumental in shepherding through legislation expanding funding for prosecuting hate crimes.
“Racism and anti-Semitism are both increasing,” said Wasserman Schultz, who with Lawrence’s and Zeldin’s departures will remain the only chair of the caucus.
“We’ve had a good relationship that we can build on within this caucus, and it’s really both a blessing that we can come together and heartbreaking that we even need to.”
Lawrence said she was ready to confront anti-Jewish bias on her side of the aisle, describing conversations she had with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a fellow Michigan Democrat whose criticisms of Israel some Jewish organizations and a number of Jewish Democrats say cross into anti-Semitism.
“I get her pain because of her grandmother and where she lives,” Lawrence said of Tlaib, who is a Palestinian American whose grandmother lives in the West Bank. But Lawrence is rankled by what she sees as Tlaib’s blanket accusations against Israelis.
“I tell Rashida, ‘There’s some bad people who are black, there’s some bad people who are Jewish, there’s some bad people who are white, there’s some bad people who are Arab. But there’s good people out there, and it’s our job to nurture and water and just push the good that’s in all of us.’”
Now, without Zeldin or Hurd — who left Congress in the last cycle — the caucus is about to be composed entirely of Democrats. Lawrence says she hasn’t been able to bring in any other Republicans to keep the caucus going beyond her departure.
Zeldin says it is key for Republicans to sign on. He also praised Lawrence for growing the caucus.
“Congresswoman Lawrence has been a pleasure to work with throughout this effort and she has greatly helped the caucus grow in both membership and influence,” he said.
“It’s my sincere hope that in the next Congress, more members on both sides of the aisle will join and be active participants in the caucus’ efforts to build on the unique relationship between the black and Jewish communities in the US.”
Lawrence said she remains hopeful. She recently attended a commemoration of the 1921 mass killing of blacks in Tulsa and was met with “a whole team of young Jewish attorneys” who were, in her words, “representing the descendants of those who lost their lives and their businesses during [the] Black Wall Street” massacre. The lesson for both communities was in finding triumph, not in being victims, she said.
“We’re not defined by slavery, and we’re not defined by the Holocaust. But we are defined by our perseverance, our survival and compassion to forgive,” she said.
“We are defined by our ability to keep the scars as a way to identify how amazing we are, but also to teach compassion and to teach our history so we will never, never ever forget.”
