Ayanna Pressley
Role at the time: United States Representative for Massachusetts's 7th district, in a statement reported by theGrio
Statement summary
Representative Ayanna Pressley condemned Rula Jebreal's description of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, saying that applying the words monkey or errand boy to Jeffries or to any Black man is disgusting and unacceptable regardless of circumstances. Her statement came a day after the Congressional Black Caucus issued its own condemnation.
“Calling Leader Jeffries or any Black man a monkey or errand boy is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable under any circumstances.”
Collects direct responses from the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Ayanna Pressley and Symone D. Sanders Townsend to Jebreal's description of Hakeem Jeffries. The Caucus statement and the Sanders Townsend statement are already recorded in this case; the Pressley statement is recorded here.
Why we used this label
Pressley rejects the wording outright and forecloses any circumstance in which it would be acceptable, which is a direct condemnation of the conduct under scrutiny. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, since she is in part disputing Jebreal's accompanying claim that no racial meaning was intended. That loses because Pressley does not argue about intent at all; she condemns the words themselves as unacceptable in every circumstance, which addresses the conduct rather than its description.