Judy’s Statement on the Our Revolution Somerville Endorsement Process

This morning I signed on to an important statement with three fellow candidates of color and rescinded my request for an endorsement from Our Revolution Somerville.

Exclusionary politics has no place in our city. After four years of divisiveness in this country, our community needs to feel engaged and included in the political process. I am both saddened and outraged that Stephenson Aman was excluded from participating in the ORS endorsement process, which had already been rife with inconsistencies around deadlines and process.

I am also shocked at the treatment of many of the candidates of color in the forum itself. Despite having a sound check 10 minutes before the start time, and writing out the pronunciation of each of our names on the publicly available questionnaire, the moderator both said my name wrong and excluded a part of my name that is core to my identity. A similar incident occurred with fellow candidate Beatriz Gomez Mouakad. These microaggressions are often just part of life for candidates of color but we must demand to do and be better here in Somerville.

I stand with Stephenson Aman, Beatriz Gómez-Mouakad, and Tracey Leah Pratt in solidarity and our campaigns are run on values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I am joining with them to call on ORS to suspend its endorsement process until it evaluates how it has fallen short of these values by excluding Stephenson, and how it has conducted its endorsement process and forums.

Read the Letter Below: