Bush Releases Rare Statement in Support of Racial Justice

President George W. Bush released a rare statement Tuesday, expressing his support for the national call to end racial injustice and police brutality.

“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country,” the 43^rd president wrote in a five-paragraph statement posted to the Bush Presidential Center website.

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“We have resisted the urge to speak out,” he continues, “because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen. It is time for America to examine our tragic failures—and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths.”

Bush affirmed that the ongoing harassment and persecution of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement “remains a shocking failure” of the country. On the other hand, the former president says, “It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future.” All of this leads to a fundamental question: “How do we end systemic racism in our society?”

Bush suggests that the only way forward is to “listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving.” Though he avoids calling out any leader by name, Bush condemns “Those who set out to silence” the voices of the oppressed. He maintains that people who turn a deaf ear to the suffering of the nation’s diverse communities “do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place.”

The statement ends with a call for unity, for all people who believe “the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal” to come together “into a single nation of justice and opportunity.” He alludes to leaders of the past like Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr., saying that each of these national icons were “heroes of unity.” Achieving sustained racial justice, Bush writes, “will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort.”

“We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion,” he concludes. “There is a better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.”

The statement comes a day after former President Barack Obama released his own remarks regarding the civil unrest that’s followed the death of George Floyd. While both men have carefully observed the tradition of former presidents withholding comment about their successors, the tumult of the last week, and the urgency of the moment, has inspired them to lend their voices to the national chorus.

Obama’s remarks, like Bush’s, called for unity, and insisted that those who really demand justice in America must direct their passion into political action, beginning with the November election.

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