[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S6356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1997

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, last year, I stated on the Senate floor 
that ``our country stands at a crossroads on the path it travels in 
relations among the different races and ethnic groups that make up the 
American people. Down one path is the way of mutual understanding and 
goodwill; the way of equal opportunity for individuals; the way of 
seriously and persistently addressing our various social problems as 
America's problems. * * * Down the other path is the way of mutual 
suspicion, fear, ill will, and indifference; the way of group rights 
and group preferences.''
  I am proud to stand today with my colleagues in the House and the 
Senate, and others who have worked so hard for the cause of 
opportunity, to announce the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 
1997. The act represents our best efforts to recommit the nation to the 
ideal of equal opportunity for every American--to emphasize that we 
must resist the temptation to define the nation's problems in narrow 
racial terms, and rather must roll up our sleeves and begin the hard 
work of dealing with our problems as Americans, and as fellow human 
beings.
  Of course, our critics will imply that those of us who today reject 
divisive racial preferences and distinctions do so because we 
underestimate the social, economic, and discriminatory obstacles some 
Americans face. President Clinton, for example, told his audience in 
San Diego last week that ``[t]he vast majority of [Californians who 
supported that state's Proposition 209] did it with a conviction that 
discrimination and isolation are no longer barriers to achievement.'' 
But that is just plain wrong.
  To the contrary, last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee we heard 
from a panel of ordinary citizens who movingly told us of their 
experiences with discrimination in America. Among them was a Chinese-
American mother from San Francisco, Charlene Loen, who told us how her 
young son Patrick was denied admission to an elite public magnet 
school, Lowell High School, because he is Chinese. The school 
district's efforts to ensure diversity among its students led it to 
employ a system of racial preference that had the effect of capping 
Chinese enrollment in many of its schools, forcing Chinese children to 
score much higher on entrance exams than children of other races. At 
virtually every public school Ms. Loen approached, she was first asked 
whether Patrick was Chinese, and when learning that he was, would 
inform Ms. Loen that Patrick need not apply. The Chinese quota was in 
effect full. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not the promise of America.
  There should be no question that discrimination indeed continues to 
deny opportunities to too many Americans. At the Judiciary Committee's 
recent hearing we heard from black Americans, white Americans, Asian 
Americans, and even a victim of an outrageous hate crime. But the 
question that we all must answer is whether one American's racial 
suffering should be valued above another's. It is a question that will 
only become more complicated and more urgent as our population grows 
ever more diverse.
  As we in the Judiciary Committee now know, when we prefer individuals 
of one race, we must by definition discriminate against individuals of 
another. But America's great social divide can never be crossed until 
we begin the work of building a bridge of racial reconciliation. By 
saying today, with the introduction of this act, that the Federal 
Government stands for the principle that racial discrimination in all 
its forms is wrong, we hope to take a small step forward on the path to 
healing the nation's racial wounds by recognizing that every American 
is equal before the law.

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