Lasting peace requires “truly equal justice.”

That’s according to former President George W. Bush, who issued his first public statement Tuesday on the widespread protests and violence stemming from last week’s death of George Floyd. Saying he and his wife Laura are “anguished,” Bush urged U.S. residents to view the situation through “the eyes of the threatened, oppressed and disenfranchised.”

“It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country,” Bush wrote in the statement. “This tragedy – in a long series of similar tragedies – raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving.”