Quotes from Jamaal Bowman

We have all ethnicities, religions, economic statuses, orientations, genders, so much diversity. We need to make sure that that diversity is seen, is heard, is respected, has a seat at the table, and is pulling a lever of power - either from a community perspective or from the perspective of elected officials.

We need a federal jobs guarantee that puts everyone to work toward a green, clean renewable energy economy.

I support defunding the police - particularly the militarization of our police force and reallocating those resources toward public health. And not just health care but mental health support, affordable housing, education, alternatives to incarceration, non-emergency responses to those who might be in mental distress.

Our crumbling infrastructure disproportionately harms Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities. The negative health impacts arising from fossil fuel use, industrial pollution, and toxic materials in our homes and schools are literally making us sick.

Congressman Engel had a reputation quite frankly for being absent from the community, being disengaged and not being a leader or fighter on the issues that matter most, and that's not just rhetoric.

Racist infrastructure has damaged districts like mine for generations.

Our schools, like so many parts of our infrastructure, are crumbling across the country. Healing our schools can and should be central to our fight to achieve environmental, racial and economic justice.

I was 11 years old when I was initially brutalized by the police, just for horse-playing with my friends and not responding to the police in the way they wanted me to.

The story of the American Jewish community is one of resilience and transformation. While often facing antisemitism and discrimination, the Jewish community fought to build better lives for themselves while making this nation a better place for all.

We need a transformation to our energy system that not only reflects our climate reality. We need an energy system that is of, by, and for the people - not corporations seeking the largest possible profit.

A true infrastructure investment must include transforming our economy to handle the climate crisis, supporting care workers, reforming SSI, making child care universal, rebuilding our crumbling public schools, and much more.

Appreciating teachers means transforming the way we think about education and the way we design curriculums. It means protecting the rights of teachers to unionize and collectively bargain.

I'm a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn't usually end in Congress.

Alex, AOC, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, she was a mentor from afar, even before I got to Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed and enabled a doctrine of obstructionism that's prevented Americans from seeing the help and progress they desperately need.

I talk about the politics of love over the politics of fear... Fear is rooted in institutional racism. It's this fear of what's different, fear of the unknown, and looking at something that's different as deficient. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be a zero sum game.

My second year of teaching I was chosen to be a crisis intervention teacher. Our school was a kindergarten through fourth grade school with 1,500 kids, largely recent immigrants from Africa and South America. And it was in one of the poorest zip codes in the country. The classes were too big, the school was underfunded.

I've been locked up for not having insurance, only to be released. I mean, this sort of thing is just par for the course when you're Black or brown in America.

We can heal our planet, use cleaner and more efficient sources of energy while creating green jobs.

You know, I grew up Black in America, I grew up close to Spanish Harlem where we ain't have much money, but we was like all friends and cool and playing and going to school together.

I'm a sponge, man. I'm a learner.

The care economy impacts all of us: our children, elderly loved ones, family members with disabilities, child care workers, home health aides, nurses, and so many more. Care is something we all need, at different stages in our lives.

Congress has the authority to authorize spending and investment to historically neglected and marginalized communities.

College athletes are workers, period. They are skilled and disciplined young people who deserve so much more than to be treated, in many cases, as sources of revenue without autonomy or ownership over their labor and value by the colleges and universities they attend.