“The premise of fairness and equity and racial justice, those are not real. No one is doing you a favor by being fair or being equitable,” the representative said. “It’s our right, as a culture and as an ethnicity and a race of people, to be treated that way.”

“Disrespect and certainly violence” erupt from people who do not hold that as a basic tenet, she added.

Meyers-Martin said watching the demonstrations held throughout the U.S. and in several other countries in response to Floyd’s death “feels good,” because the public outcry is evidence people view systemic racism as “a wrong that needs to be corrected.”

But, she said, she hopes protests and any reforms that come in their wake are meaningful, not “just a temporary Band-Aid to something very tragic.”

The representative also urged residents to treat racial inequities as a “continuous fight” that requires “continuous involvement and engagement.” In addition to criminal justice and police reforms, it is important to “rebuild and recover our communities.”

“I mean, there’s a lot of ways that I think that we can be effective going forward in addressing some of the ills that we have witnessed over recent years, so I’m excited to begin to roll up our sleeves and begin to address some of those issues,” Meyers-Martin said. “And I’m hoping that we will get universal buy-in to doing that and maybe, you know, what we have seen in terms of the protests and the seemingly interest in making real change will help us do that.”