Why you should care about D.C. statehood

By Andre Parker Ombudsman AN OPINION

The question of whether to admit the District of Columbia to the Union as a state has been one of the most contentious issues in Congress for decades. The debate was reignited in early March after the D.C. Council proposed a controversial new criminal code, the first overhaul of the code since 1901. The alarm around the new code has been great enough for Congress to leverage its constitutional oversight over the special district’s laws and block a D.C. bill for the first time in more than 30 years.

After the D.C. Council passed the bill, House Republicans, backed by 31 Democrats, successfully passed a resolution to block the code. On March 8, the Senate voted to block the bill, and President Biden later signed the resolution, decisively striking down the D.C. Council’s new criminal code against the will of the people of the District.

The fight for D.C. statehood is a moral fight for the principles of democracy on which the United States was built, namely a fight against taxation without representation, as the District notes on its license plate slogan. Part of the reason that so little progress has been made in the campaign for D.C. statehood is the apathy and lack of awareness about the issue from people who don’t live in the District. To achieve equal representation and full citizenship rights for Washingtonians, the conversation around statehood needs to be democratized—driven by the beliefs of the public rather than the partisan interests of Republican congresspeople from states hundreds first place. The people of D.C. not only deserve representation and self-government, they pay a higher price for it with their tax dollars than people in 22 states who get a voice in Congress. derrepresents POC: each state has equal seats, thus giving one person in a small state greater representa tion than one in a large state when the largest and densest states (e.g. California, Florida, New York, etc.) are some of the most diverse. or thousands of miles away.

Were D.C. a state, it would have the highest Black population of any state in the Union and would be the only plurality-Black state in the country with a 46% Black population. The lack of representation of roughly half of D.C.’s populace in Congress is a symptom of America’s widespread oppression of Black people and stems from intentional racist disenfranchisement.

Therefore, the Senate gives the average Black American 75 percent of the representation of the average white American, and the average Hispanic American only has 55 per cent of the representation of a white person. Admitting the District. as a state would be a step toward correct ing this flagrant inequality.

First of all, despite D.C. residents paying more in federal income taxes than the residents of 22 other states and more per-capita income tax than any state in the Union, they have no power in Congress to decide where those tax dollars go. D.C. residents aren’t represented in the Senate, and D.C. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton can’t vote on legislation, leaving D.C.’s three electoral votes for the presidency its only material national representation. This taxation without real representation echoes the injustice of second-class citizenship that motivated the American Revolution and the creation of the United States in the

In the 1950s, when home-rule legislation was passed by the Senate but blocked in the House by Southern segregationists, racism was at the core of the objections. According to The Washington Post, “One member of Congress reported that more than a dozen people told him ‘in private and not in confidence that they are opposed to this bill because of their fear it would give the Negro domination over the District of Columbia.’”

The arguments against D.C. statehood are still rooted in racism today—Republicans are staunchly anti-statehood because, as Trump explicitly admitted, D.C. gaining statehood would mean two more dependably Democratic seats in the Senate and a voting Democrat representative, which matters more than ensuring democracy for Black people. The Senate already overrepresents white people and un-

Further, D.C. has the financial resources to be self-sufficient, a population greater than those of Vermont and Wyoming, and already takes on responsibilities of a state without any of the rights and privileges. The District is the only capital of a representative democracy whose residents have no representation in the national legislature, and Americans today have a duty to right this historic injustice.

The people should be in control of the dialogue around D.C. statehood, and public pressure for representation and home rule would give the statehood campaign the momentum it needs to move forward. I implore you to take advantage of your Congressional representation and contact your Senators and Representative(s)—if you live in Maryland, that’s Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen in the Senate, and you can use the attached QR code to find your House Represen-

To connect with Andre email him at scombud@gmail.com tative. Let them know your reasons for supporting D.C. statehood and the importance of taking action on this issue, and urge them to support the D.C. Admission Act and statehood for Washington, D.C.