City Wide ANC Letter: “Efforts to End DC Self-Determination are Racist”
by US Postal Service or electronic mail
March 28, 2023
The Honorable James Comer, Chairman
Committee on Oversight and Accountability
United States House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Subject: Efforts to End DC Self-Determination are Racist
Dear Chairman Comer:
We are writing as local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners in the District of Columbia ー elected officials who are closest to the approximately 700,000 residents of and neighborhoods across DC ー to call on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to invite Mayor Muriel Bowser and other DC leaders to testify at the Committee’s March 29th hearing regarding “general oversight of the District of Columbia, including crime, safety, and city management.”
The racism inherent in this proposed hearing is obvious. The Committee has invited four white men to testify, including the DC Police Union Chair, the DC Chief Financial Officer, the DC Council Chair, and the former head of the DC Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. You have called this hearing to address so-called “radical left-wing policies [that] have led to a crime crisis and rampant homelessness” ー framing that is often used as a racist dog whistle.
Notably absent from your invitations are top Black women and other DC leaders, including Mayor Muriel Boswer; Acting Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, Lindsey Appiah; Executive Director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, Linda Harllee Harper; Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Robert J. Contee III; and Director of the DC Department of Human Services, Laura Green Zeilinger. These leaders work every day on community safety and ending homelessness in the District. Instead, the Committee has selected four white men with only peripheral ties to the day-to-day leadership of the District on these important issues. It appears the Committee does not wish to hear from leaders of color, a startling erasure when 45.8% of the District’s population identifies as Black.
As local elected officials and residents of the District of Columbia, we are committed to local autonomy for the people of DC through DC Statehood. For too long, Congress has denied DC residents full civic participation and self-determination, a decision rooted in racism that continues today. Your selection of panelists for this hearing maintains this status quo of disenfranchisement for and bias against DC residents who are also Americans who pay federal taxes and serve in our military.
We reject your efforts to undermine our local laws and question your motives in overturning and otherwise undermining what you call “radical left-wing policies” from a District that is plurality-Black while refusing to even hear from prominent Black and women leaders.
Sincerely,
Jamila White, Commissioner, ANC 8A05
Alyce McFarland, Commissioner, ANC 8B06
Reverend Wendy Hamilton, Commissioner, ANC 8D06
Lakiah Williams, Commissioner, ANC 8D08
Clayton Rosenberg, Commissioner, ANC 8F05
Travis R. Swanson, Commissioner, ANC 7B03
Anthony Lorenzo Green, Commissioner, ANC 7C04
Patricia Stamper, Commissioner, ANC 7C06
Kimberly Martin, Commissioner, ANC 7C08
Ebony Payne, Commissioner, ANC 7D05
Marc Friend, Commissioner, ANC 7D06
Ashley Renee Ruff, Commissioner, ANC 7F02
Keya Chatterjee, Commissioner, ANC 6A01
Amber Gove, Commissioner, ANC 6A04
David Sobelsohn, Commissioner, ANC 6B03
Francis D'Andrea, Commissioner, ANC 6B04
Kasie Durkit, Commissioner, ANC 6B05
Edward Ryder, Commissioner, ANC 6B08
Matt LaFortune, Commissioner, ANC 6B09
Christy Kwan, Commissioner, ANC 6C01
Patricia Eguino, Commissioner, ANC 6C06
Andrea M. Pawley, Commissioner, ANC 6D04
Ashton Rohmer, Commissioner, ANC 6D05
Dylan Forest, Commissioner, ANC 6E06
Zachary Ammerman, Commissioner, ANC 5A09
VJ Kapur, Commissioner, ANC 5C07
Sebrena Rhodes, Commissioner, ANC 5D02
Anna Roblin, Commissioner, ANC 5D03
Stephen Cobb, Commissioner, ANC 5D04
Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, Commissioner, ANC 5D05
Huma Imtiaz, Commissioner, ANC 5E04
Aru Sahni, Commissioner, ANC 5F02
Patricia L. Williams, Commissioner, ANC 5F03
Jennifer Anderson, Commissioner, ANC 5F05
Erin Palmer, Commissioner, ANC 4B02
Zurick Smith, Commissioner, ANC 4B03
Evan Yeats, Commissioner, ANC 4B04
Tiffani Nichole Johnson, Commissioner, ANC 4B06
Alison Brooks, Commissioner, ANC 4B08
Casey Swegman, Commissioner, ANC 4C01
Brittany Kademian, Commissioner, ANC 4C05
Stephen Marencic, Commissioner, ANC 4D05
Aman George, Commissioner, ANC 4D06
Thaddeus Bradley-Lewis, Commissioner, ANC 3A01
Kevin Lavezzo, Commissioner, ANC 3B01
Adam Prinzo, Commissioner, ANC 3C02
Janell Pagats, Commissioner, ANC 3C03
Roric McCorristin, Commissioner, ANC 3C04
Sauleh Siddiqui, Commissioner, ANC 3C05
Tammy Gordon, Commissioner, ANC 3C06
Gawain Kripke, Commissioner, ANC 3C07
Quentin Colón Roosevelt, Commissioner, ANC 3D03
Bernie Horn, Commissioner, ANC 3D05
Rohin Ghosh, Commissioner, ANC 3E08
James Tandaric, Commissioner, ANC 3F05
Lisa R. Gore, Commissioner, ANC 3/4G01
Peter Lynch, Commissioner, ANC 3/4G05
Zach Ferguson, Commissioner, ANC 3/4G07
Yannik Omictin, Commissioner, ANC 2A01
Trupti Patel, Commissioner, ANC 2A03
Jeffrey Rueckgauer, Commissioner, ANC 2B02
Zach Adams, Commissioner, ANC 2B08
Kishan Putta, Commissioner, ANC 2E01
Joe Massaua, Commissioner, ANC 2E04
Sheena Berry, Commissioner, ANC 2G05
Max Ewart, Commissioner, ANC 1A01
Dieter Lehmann Morales, Commissioner, ANC 1A02
Jeremy Sherman, Commissioner, ANC 1A04
Stephen Coleman Kenny, Commissioner, ANC 1A05
Mukta Ghorpadey, Commissioner, ANC 1A07
Sabel Harris, Commissioner, ANC 1B08
Tucker Jones, Commissioner, ANC 1B09
Peter Wood, Commissioner, ANC 1C03
Lynda Laughlin, Commissioner, ANC 1C06
Angela Allison, Commissioner, ANC 1D06
Bradley Gallagher, Commissioner, ANC 1E01
Rashida Brown, Commissioner, ANC 1E04
Josh Jacobson, Commissioner, ANC 1E06
Brian Footer, Commissioner, ANC 1E07
cc: The Honorable Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight and Accountability
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Mayor Muriel Bowser
Members of the Council of the District of Columbia
*For questions, please contact Reverend Wendy Hamilton at 8D06@anc.dc.gov; Matt LaFortune at 6B09@anc.dc.gov; Erin Palmer at 4B02@anc.dc.gov; or Evan Yeats at 4B04@anc.dc.gov.*