Rep. Cori Bush recently reflected on her first impressions serving in Congress, talking about the scrutiny she feels being one of only 25 black women in the House of Representatives.
Bush, the first black congresswoman elected from Missouri, said that when she first arrived on Capitol Hill for an orientation last year, some members thought her name was Breonna Taylor because she wore a mask that bore the name of the 26-year-old emergency room technician killed in a botched police raid last year.
Since then, the Democrat said she “absolutely” feels pressure to do better than what people might expect of her. She talked about her experiences in a series of interviews with ABC’s Good Morning America conducted throughout her first month of Congress, published on Tuesday.
“I feel it as a woman. I feel it as a black woman, the pressure to perform in such a way to where people feel like you did a good job,” Bush said. “In their eyes, you belong in that seat. In their eyes, you’re meeting their expectations, at least. I do feel that pressure because there are people who would like to see me fail.”
CORI BUSH SAYS IF PROTESTERS STORMING CAPITOL WERE BLACK, THEY ‘WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOT’
Bush also mentioned a well-known photo of her during her swearing-in that seemed to catch people’s eye. In the photo, the 44-year-old is seen raising her hand with a chest tattoo on display. Bush claimed she was discouraged by some to cover up her tattoo but received positive affirmations from others who said they saw themselves in her.
“The comments, the quote tweets that I had, people saying, ‘I feel seen. I feel seen because you weren’t afraid to show that,'” she said. “We were told that we can’t do that, that it’s unprofessional, especially as black women, because you have to work so much harder. You can’t wear things the way a white woman wears them. You can’t do that. You have to push harder.”
The Missouri congresswoman was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2021, along with a record-breaking 121 other women entering Congress.
Before running for office, the St. Louis native was a local organizer and protest leader for Black Lives Matter, a movement that originated after the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Over the course of the interviews, Bush touched on her activism with Black Lives Matter and how she hopes to continue efforts to reform law enforcement and promote racial justice. The past year has highlighted several high-profile cases of black people who have died in police custody, prompting nationwide cries for reform. This August will mark the seventh anniversary of Brown’s death.
“I didn’t want my son or daughter or anyone in my family to be the next hashtag,” Bush said. “I didn’t know what else to do to affect that kind of change other than showing up. We needed representatives there representing us, so I decided to run.”
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She encouraged others to follow her lead.
“The door is now open for so many others [to run for office],” she said. “We need justice for George Floyd. We need justice for Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and Mike Brown Jr., Anthony Lamar Smith, and so many others … and another way to get there is for more of us to run.”
