Race equity commission calls on Mills to launch Truth and Reconciliation process

Maine’s new Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations sent a letter to Governor Janet Mills on Thursday outlining immediate steps the administration should take to address systemic racism in Maine.

“The events of recent weeks reaffirm the importance of this commission,” said state Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), the interim chair of the commission.

“The brutal killing of George Floyd on May 25 has reignited a global conversation about systemic racism and the ways in which anti-Black racism has structurally impacted the health and well-being of Black people living in the U.S.,” reads the letter signed by the body’s eight commissioners. In addition to Talbot Ross, they include Penobscot Nation tribal ambassador Maulian Dana, Mano en Mano director Ian Yaffe, Maine Equal Justice policy advocate Joby Thoyalil, labor unionist Garrett Stewart, Maine Center for Economic Policy analyst James Myall, workforce development specialist Bruce King, and Coastal Enterprises president Keith Bisson.

Click here to read the full story, first published June 18, 2020, in Beacon.