Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and the audacity to dream
Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 84, was a firm believer that our capacity to change the world was only as big as our imagination: “If my mind can conceive it, my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.”
That’s why, in a “life or death” battle for our Constitutional rights and freedoms, U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley says we need not just to fight and inform, but to dream. To be joyful. To believe in the possibility of a better future for everyone, including Black Americans who are frequently cast aside by our political system.
Policy, she told The Fine Print, is her “love language.” And if we can imagine policies that harm people, we can just as easily conceive policies that heal.
Here’s an excerpt of our interview with Congresswoman Pressley, lightly edited for length and clarity.
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How do you reflect on this 100th anniversary of Negro History Week/Black History Month?
I was going to say it finds me at an unprecedented moment of anti-Blackness in our country, but I guess that's not really true. As Black folks, we have had to litigate, legislate, agitate, mobilize for those things that are a birthright for others. This moment of active resistance is nothing new to us. So we've been provided with a radical blueprint, and it's just about following it. So I think at this moment in 2026, it finds me resolved, infinitely inspired, and still joyful.
Because you know the proverbial “they” are coming for our civil rights, our civil liberties, every bit of progress and gains that have been made. I won't give them my Black joy, too.
How do we embody that “fierce urgency of now” that Dr. King and so many others have called us to in this moment?
I would just say we don't have any choice. This is a matter of life and death.
And no one has the luxury of sitting idly by and doing nothing, because what a dictator wants is for a citizenry to be ignorant and uninformed. A dictator wants a citizenry to be indifferent to the suffering of its neighbors. And so, you know, that is our call to action in this moment, to be active, to be engaged, to be deeply empathetic, to be well informed. So the fierce urgency of now is really, it's all around us.
You can't just take shelter from the storm and benefit from those who are fighting to keep you safe. We all have to bring our gifts to the resistance in this moment. History has shown us that appeasement does not work. The only way to beat the dictator is with defiance. |
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(Photo: Joshua Qualls/Massachusetts Governor’s Press Office) |
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How do we combat anti-Blackness when it’s so deeply ingrained in our country’s DNA?
When we say “white supremacy,” that's what we're talking about: law systems and structures. The harm done to Black people for centuries was all legislated. It was all legalized. It was all codified into somebody's budget. So, we have a lot of work to do to undo centuries of harm and to unlearn those practices. The stakes are high.
But in the midst of it all, I don't want us to stop dreaming. I've always believed radical work begins with a radical dream. And so while we're doing the work of resistance, we have to continue to, again, affirm Black futures and to manifest what does that look like?
What does that look like to have the humanity and the dignity of Black people centered? What does it look like for Black men to actually grow old? What does it look like to have intergenerational wealth and economic freedom? What does it mean to have autonomy over our bodies in this moment, to read whatever books we want, criticize our government, all of the things that are under attack?
But we can't just do the work of resistance. We still have to do the work of radical dreaming, naming, and manifesting the affirmative vision for what a more just America looks like for everyone.
As a lawmaker, how are you radically dreaming of a better America?
I do a lot of work to center myself, to meditate, to regulate my system so that I can give myself permission to continue to dream, but also to legislate in ways that are aspirational and unapologetic.
I reintroduced the H.R. 40 reparations bill, and again, people thought, “Why would you do that under this administration? You don't have a majority to even move the legislation.” But there's great momentum for reparations throughout the country, and I don't want that to cease. And in a moment of anti-Blackness, we should be unapologetically pro-Black.
Similarly, I've introduced the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act (alongside Senator Ed Markey), which is specific to federal ICE agents, so that people don't have federal law enforcement moving with callous disregard for human life and with impunity.
I have introduced legislation to make it easier for Black homeownership, to give people recourse if they believe that their appraisal evaluation is inaccurate. Much of our wealth is through property, and [Black Bostonians] have been denied so much of their wealth because their appraisals have been biased.
So I'm looking at getting at it in every single way. Black health, Black wealth, Black joy. The centuries of harm that have been done to Black folks was legislated. So policy is my love language. If you can legislate hurt and harm, you can legislate equity, healing, and justice. And that's the work that I do every day. My pen stays busy.
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